A Weymouth church is taking steps to improve its security after it was ransacked by yobs.

The youth pastor’s office of Weymouth Baptist Church was broken into. A number of items were stolen in the shocking burglary, including a Dell E6440 laptop, a red Yamaha electric bass guitar, a Fender acoustic guitar, an Ovation guitar, three Boss distortion pedals, a camcorder and a Nintendo Wii.

Ted Winter of Weymouth Baptist Church said one of the deacons found the youth pastor’s office ‘not as it should be’ when he arrived in the morning.

He added: “They accessed the building through the fire door which opens out on to the quay. There was some damage, and the office was ransacked. They were clearly looking for things like the camcorder.”

Mr Winter said he thought the burglary must have been ‘premeditated’ and added: “They were aware of what they were doing, but they weren’t aware of how it would affect the life of the church.

“It was probably done without the full knowledge of the effect it would have.”

He said the youth ministry will be most affected by the incident and added: “They will obviously be affected to some degree or other, because it’s theirs. It’s stuff they use for their youth club, when they have recreational time. We have got a very lively youth club and it’s all part and parcel.”

Mr Winter added: “It’s not something that we can’t get over, but we would have preferred it not to have happened.We will be taking steps to try and prevent anything like this happening again in the future.”

Police are investigating and are appealing for witnesses and anyone with information to come forward.

Sergeant Richard Barnett, of Weymouth police, said: “This burglary has resulted in significant inconvenience and expense to the church and I am appealing to anyone who has information about the incident to contact me.

“I would also particularly like to hear from anyone who has seen the items listed for sale in suspicious circumstances.”

The break-in happened sometime overnight on Tuesday, January 29.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Dorset Police on 101, quoting occurrence number 55190015448.