An Earlwood teenager has been arrested after a decapitating statue of Jesus and Mary outside a church in Sydney’s inner West.
The 19-year-old irreparably damaged the statues outside the St Paul of the Cross Church in Dulwich Hill, and then posted pictures online of him holding the broken pieces.
He has since handed himself into the police and is now assisting with enquiries, according to a Channel 7 report on Tuesday morning.
The 19-year-old poses for a picture after breaking the heads off a statue of Mary holding Jesus
He admitted to vandalising and statue of Mary and Jesus outside St Paul of the Cross Church
While responses have been divided, most people have written that the Christian thing to is forgive him.
‘Remember: you won’t be forgiven unless you forgive,’ wrote one man.
‘You’ll grow to be bitter, spiteful and lonely if you keep this up…Pray for his conversion – more rejoicing in heaven for one repentant sinner.’
Another woman urged people to ‘be kind… an eye for an eye turns the whole world blind’.
Still others reminded people Jesus was always compassionate towards sinners: ‘If Jesus can forgive those who crucified him… we have very little leverage not to forgive these people.
CCTV footage has captured the moment the teenager broke the heads off the religious statue
But others were not so forgiving, with one woman branding the teenager an ‘animal’ and another saying he ‘deserves everything he gets’.
‘I hope the police throw the book at his head,’ said one person, with others labelling him a ‘grub’, ‘moron’ and ‘coward’.
His decision to turn himself in has also been slammed, with people writing, ‘Lol he handed himself in because he’s scared’ and ‘He’s only sorry because he’s afraid [he will] get jumped’.
The incident comes just days after another teenage boy, James Dale, posed in front of a Greek Orthodox church in Kogarah wearing a shirt reading ‘Jesus is a c*nt’.
James Dale posed in front of a Greek Orthodox church wearing a shirt reading ‘Jesus is a c*nt
I ‘want to apologise to the Greek Orthodox church and community for offending you,’ he wrote
Dale has since issued an apology of sorts, saying that it was ‘not his intention’ to be offensive.
‘I, James Dale, want to apologise to the Greek Orthodox church and community for offending you,’ he wrote on a sign. ‘It was not my intention.’
The man who snapped the photo has also apologised, writing ‘I’m so sorry’ on his Instagram page before setting it to private.