Arrests as stolen WW1 plaques found in scrapyard

Two military memorial plaques disappeared from the grounds of Christ Church Luton in Chatham last weekend

Seven men have been arrested following the theft of two World War One plaques from a Kent war memorial, police have said.

Two military memorial plaques disappeared from the grounds of Christ Church Luton in Chatham between 22:00 BST on Friday and 10:00 on Saturday.

Police said both plaques have been recovered, with one substantially damaged.

The plaques were found in separate scrapyards in Essex on Wednesday.

Both plaques have been found by police in scrapyards in Essex, with one substantially damaged

Kent Police said it initially arrested a 26-year-old man and a 25-year-old man, both from the Dartford area, and has since arrested a further five men from Medway, aged between 22 and 51.

Christ Church Luton's priest in charge, the Reverend Andrea Leonard, praised the person who alerted the authorities to the first plaque.

"Hats off to the person, who wants to obviously remain anonymous, but who had the integrity to phone the police and say 'I've got something here that you want," she told BBC Radio Kent.

"He actually spoke to me and he said he looked at the list and thought, 'those poor lads that gave everything, they don't deserve this'."

The plaques commemorate 163 people from the Chatham area who died in World War One

The plaques, which commemorate the 163 people from the Chatham area who died in World War One, each weigh about 93kg.

The memorial, which has been in place for 105 years, is "priceless" to the parish and relatives of the soldiers, Ms Leonard said.

She added: "It was terrible when we discovered that they were gone.

"We just could not believe it because it's not only the church, it's the whole wider community."