From http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/story.jsp?story=366227
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Axeman injures three then runs amok destroying abbey treasures
By Paul Peachey

04 January 2003

Three people were taken to hospital after a mentally disturbed man ran amok with two axes before attacking religious artefacts inside Waltham Abbey, Essex, yesterday.

The axeman walked into a fisherman’s caf? in nearby Waltham Cross, which is in Hertfordshire, and attacked a 62-year-old man before smashing cars as he walked calmly towards the 12th century abbey close by.

He smashed the pulpit, organ, statues and at least one stained-glass window while yelling wildly. The cost of damage is estimated to run into hundreds of thousands of pounds.

At one point he smashed the axes into the faces of Jesus and Joseph on a valuable Victorian carved frieze behind the altar before police overpowered him using CS spray.

The injured man in the caf? was bleeding heavily from serious wounds to his head and back but witnesses said he was conscious and able to walk to an ambulance. A woman was also taken to Chase Farm Hospital suffering from shock after the man smashed the windows of her car as he walked past. A third person, a man, was also believed to have been taken to hospital with minor injuries.

A man, aged 47 and described by a witness as a “crusty fisherman”, was being questioned by officers at Harlow police station last night.

Witnesses told how the man carried out the attacks in a determinedly calm fashion. He is believed to have attacked the first man in a riverside caf? at a marina in Waltham Cross at about 1.30pm yesterday.

He left and walked calmly up the road, attacking things in his way with the axes. A witness, Tanya Jones, said he set upon a car with a woman and her son inside. The windows shattered, leaving the woman in shock.

One man, who declined to be named, came out of a nearby pub to challenge the axeman when he heard the commotion. He said: “I heard a scream and then I saw the guy leaving the marina with an axe and saw people following him at a distance. I said to him: ‘what’s happened?’ and he just blanked me as he put the axe away.”

The man walked into the abbey, reputed to be the burial place of King Harold, where he ran amok for about five minutes. Off-duty police officers inside ushered the verger, his wife and visitors to safety before raising the alarm.

Canon Martin Webster, vicar of the abbey, said: “He got into the sanctuary and really had a go at the heart of our church, that’s what is most upsetting. He was clearly in an agitated state but quite determined.

“It was upsetting, but at the time we were more concerned with making sure staff and members of the public had left the building. But when he started to tackle the organ I did want to say to him, ‘Please don’t do that’.”