The English Disease: Polish Teenagers Targeted UK Site for Vandalism 'Fun'

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Laughing: The pair pictured outside York Crown Court, where they were sentenced yesterday (Daily Mail)

The vandalism of Scarborough castle by two of Britain's foreign guests, who presumably do not feel Scarborough Castle to be in any way part of their heritage:

ONE of Britain’s most iconic castles was targeted in a vandalism attack in which historic walls were ripped apart and medieval architecture thrown down a well, a court heard yesterday. Irreplaceable stonework dating back 2,500 years was targeted by two teenagers who then revelled in the destruction by posting pictures on the Polish equivalent of Facebook. [...] defendants Norbert Borowicz and Matt Kazimierz Lucas Fractowiek, both 18, who are of Polish origin but live in Scarborough, escaped with community services orders requiring them to carry out unpaid work. Borowicz, of Aberdeen Place, and Fractowiek, of St Mary’s Walk, admitted causing £5,000 of criminal damage.[...]  Judge Ashurst sentenced the teenagers to 12-month community service orders. Borowicz was ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work, and Fractowiek was told to do 40 hours.[...] The judge said while many would feel a custodial sentence should be passed for vandalising monuments, the law dictated criminal damage of less than £5,000 had to be dealt with by magistrates. 

Mr Borowicz and Mr Fractowiak would not get off so lightly with that at home. The value Poland places on its heritage is reflected by the severity punishment is meted out to those who are caught damaging it - and that includes artefact hunters with metal detectors on archaeological sites.  Oddly enough you do not see as much vandalism of historic sites in Poland as you do in the UK. But perhaps Mr Borowicz and Mr Fractowiak feel quite at home among the heritage despoilers of Britain, let's hope these hooligans stay there and don't bring their heritage-smashing manners over here.

...the 12th century monument is now being invaded on an “almost nightly basis” by gangs of youths, York Crown Court heard yesterday.

Over in Egypt they have this problem too, with peasants, who are damaging archaeological sites:

“The ministry has been suffering from [citizens] lack of archaeological awareness,” Ibrahim said [...]

well, obviously they need an archaeological outreach organization the measure of the fifteen-million quid one in England and Wales. We see above how much it is achieving outreaching to the British public.

Yorkshire Post, 'Teenagers targeted castle for vandalism' 19th February 2013. Chris Brooke, 'Teenage vandals caused irreparable damage to 2,500-year-old Scarborough Castle before posting 'jubilant' photos online', Daily Mail 19 February 2013.