Covid: Illegal New Year party at Essex church broken up

A 500-year-old church was damaged during an illegal New Year's Eve party at the venue.

All Saints' Church in East Horndon, near Brentwood, was broken into before crowds entered, Essex Police said.

Officers were threatened and had objects thrown at them as they dispersed hundreds of people and seized equipment, the force said.

Two men from Harlow, aged 27 and 22, and a 35-year-old from Southwark were arrested.

They were held on suspicion of public order and drugs offences.

Astrid Gillespie, a volunteer with the Friends of All Saints', said event organisers had smashed a window to put in an extractor fan unit and wired sound equipment into the church's fuse box.

She said: "It was a professional set-up, they'd hired portable loos, they had a bar area where you had to exchange tokens... obviously it's a mess.

"It's such a beautiful church, to find out it's been damaged is devastating."

The conservation group believes it will cost at least £1,000 to repair the Tudor building.

Essex is in England's top tier four of coronavirus restrictions and on Wednesday declared a major incident over virus cases.

Police later dispersed about 100 people at an illegal party at an abandoned warehouse in Brentwood and made two arrests.

A woman was also fined £10,000 for organising a house party with 100 guests at Bury Road, Sewardstonebury, in Epping Forest.

Officers seized equipment and issued 25 fixed penalty notices.

Assistant Chief Constable Andy Prophet said: "Unfortunately, there were [those] who decided to blatantly flout the coronavirus rules and regulations and, ultimately, they decided that partying was more important than protecting other people.

"We've seized their equipment, arrested five people, and issued a large number of fines to those who think this behaviour is acceptable."

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