VANDALS have smashed three holes in a church's 140-year-old stained-glass window.

Jack Hudson surveys the damage

Stones landed on the altar of St Mary's Parish Church in Upper Heyford, near Bicester. The 20ft-high window and three panels were damaged.

Church treasurer Veronica Lough-Scott said: "It is sickening.

"To think the window has been there for so long and in this day and age someone has thrown stones through it.

"We believe stones were pulled out of the dry stone wall that surrounds the churchyard."

The damage was discovered by the sexton, Jack Hudson, on Sunday, May 4.

Mrs Lough-Scott added: "The church is insured against fire but not for this damage."