Nuns held after food bank robbery

Shopkeepers in the seaside fishing town of Hastings have stepped up security after a popular food bank was robbed at gunpoint last Saturday afternoon.

CCTV captured the moment when two well-built nuns entered St Meredith’s Church and ordered staff to fill a carrier bag with tinned baked beans.

Volunteer Marjory Dickinson, 79, told our Crime Correspondent Maurice Locke what happened next.

“I was so scared,” she said, “one of them was about six foot three, waving a nasty looking gun and shouting that she ‘only wanted them HP, none of that other crap’.”

Hastings police responded rapidly, retrieving a size 16 boot and a pink water pistol from a nearby alleyway. Two nuns from the Bexhill convent ‘Sisters of the Veiled Threat’ are being questioned.

When our correspondent finally spoke to Mother Superior Bill Siggs by telephone she said: “Watch what you write sonny or I’ll send someone round to ‘ave a little word.”