TWO men pleaded guilty yesterday to stripping lead from church roofs and selling it for thousands of pounds.

James Wall, 20, and Aaron Hennessy, 24, appeared before Didcot magistrates charged with stealing lead on a series of occasions in December and January.

The pair, both of Beeching Way, Wallingford, pleaded guilty to stealing £5,000 worth of lead from St Andrew’s Church in East Hagbourne, lead of an unknown value from All Saints’ Church in Didcot on two occasions, and lead worth £6,000 from SS Peter and Paul Church in Wantage.

They asked for eight other similar offences to be taken into consideration.

John Chappel, prosecuting, told the court that the two men used the same method each time to steal the lead.

The court heard they were caught after they left a wrecking bar on the roof of All Saints’ Church with Wall’s fingerprints on it.

Mr Chappel added: “There is a metal merchants which has £2,500 of receipts and each of these receipts can be tied in to a particular theft.”

David Hicks, defending, said the two men should be given credit for early guilty pleas.

The case was adjourned and the two were bailed to appear before Oxford magistrates next month.

They were given bail on the condition that they do not visit school or church premises across the Thames Valley, apart from a school attended by a child of one of the defendants.

The Rev Karen Beck, vicar of All Saints’ Church in Didcot, told in December how lead had been taken from the roof above the vestry of the Grade II listed church.

She estimated that lead worth £6,000 had been taken.