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A 500-year-old church in Essex was ransacked by hundreds of people in an unlicensed music event, with the grounds scrambled, a window broken and evidence of drug use.
Event organizers set up a bar and DJ rigs inside the church and hired Portaloos for partygoers at All Saints Church in East Horndon, a Grade II listed * building.
Essex police said officers had been threatened and had objects thrown at them while trying to interact with those present at the New Year’s Eve party.
A small window had been smashed to fit an exhaust fan unit, and the stereo had been hooked up to the church’s fuse box.
Due to the building’s age and heritage status, conservation volunteers supporting the church said the damage “wouldn’t be cheap” to repair, with estimates of at least £ 1,000.
Astrid Gillespie, a volunteer with Friends of All Saints, said she was “trying to understand the news,” having discovered it through a Facebook post on New Year’s Day.
“I went up there and the police were still packing up the equipment that they seized,” he said.
“There were hundreds of people there, it seemed like it was a ticketed event. It was a professional setup, they had hired Portaloos, they are still there.
“They had a bar area where you had to trade tokens, so they must have been selling drink tokens.
“There was a lot of evidence of drugs and they have hurt the church, obviously it is a disaster and needs to be cleaned up completely.
“The ground has been turned because there must be trucks that left all the equipment.”
It was just one of hundreds of events that police across the country broke up when partygoers ignored pleas to stay home amid coronavirus restrictions.
There were similar scenes in East London where beer bottles and canisters of laughing gas lay strewn on the floor in the premises of an illegal New Year’s Eve warehouse destroyed by police.
Music speakers placed in wooden boxes were abandoned when the Metropolitan Police attended the event without a license at the Royal Docks.
While the vast majority of the country complied with no-mix rules outside their home, arrests were made in parts of England, with at least 217 fines issued in London alone.
Where were the police called to break up the illegal parties?
In London, the Metropolitan Police said they attended calls to 58 unlicensed music events and parties in violation of Level 4 rules Thursday night.
Various house parties also dispersed to the east of the capital.
Some 217 people were fined with fixed penalties, while five people received a possible £ 10,000 fine for organizing large gatherings of people.
Four people were arrested for violating Covid regulations after meeting in central London, the force added.
Essex police said they handed over more than £ 18,000 in fines following violations of Covid-19 regulations.
Along with the illegal event at the church in Thorndon Park, officers later seized a generator at an unlicensed event at an abandoned warehouse in Brentwood and dispersed about 100 people. Two people were arrested.
Meanwhile, a woman was fined £ 10,000 for hosting a house party with around 100 attendees on Bury Road, Sewardstonebury. More than 25 notices of fixed fines were also issued, police said.
More than 100 fixed penalty notices (FPN) for violations of Covid regulations were issued by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said the force.
Between 5:00 p.m. on New Years Eve and 7:00 a.m. on January 1, the police issued 105 FPNs, bringing the total issued by GMP since August to 2,320.
Most of the fines were issued at house parties, but there were several more significant incidents, including a rave at an industrial estate in Wigan and a big fight at a party of around 30 people in Manchester city center.
GMP Deputy Chief of Police Chris Sykes said: “I am confident that the majority of our residents, who think correctly, will join me in condemning this irresponsible, life-threatening behavior.”
Sussex Police issued 12 tickets in Brighton for breach of lockdown rules, and by 11pm they had made 13 arrests in West County for various offenses, including a fight.
These were among the 81 fixed ticket notices issued by Sussex Police between 6:00 PM Thursday and 3:00 AM Friday.
The fines ranged from outdoor group gatherings in public spaces to private parties and people traveling from out of the area to the county.
Several were turned over to groups that gathered on Brighton Beach in violation of restrictions, although there was no large-scale event on the promenade, police said.
Five tickets were issued to a group detained in a London car who claimed they were in Brighton to pick up a takeout.
Chief Detective Terry Woods of Police Lancashire Police said officers had dealt with “a steady stream of incidents,” including a closing party at a house in Hyndburn.
He tweeted: “Some shocking tonight eg Hyndburn rural property with about 80 youngsters there, stopped by @LancsPolice and reported by organizer for a £ 10k fine.”
At around 2.30am, he posted: “The demand is now increasing: mugging issues, fights at house parties, sadly domestic abuse and people in crisis.
“I spent the midnight strike on foot with police looking for a high-risk missing person. I just resumed assistance with the arrest of a violent alcoholic driver, welcome to 2021 !! ”
West midlands Police were also battling lockdown fatigue as 2020 drew to a close.
Police Chief Dave Thompson posted: “Very grateful for the time with @OSU_WMP.
“I fear some shocking Covid crashes with very large house parties. Well attended by the team. It’s always a pleasure spending time with such professional officials. ”
Merseyside police got ahead of the game putting a dispersal zone at Pier Head and other parts of Liverpool city center between 7:30 pm on New Year’s Eve and 1 January at noon.
The order came just hours after a social media post circulated encouraging people to gather near the Liver Building for a party with the words “F *** Tier 3,” reported the Liverpool Echo.
Other forces came out more lightly, with Wiltshire Police are reporting “a quiet and peaceful New Year”, issuing around 20 formal warnings for the house parties to disperse.
