Vandals have daubed the statue of a saint with blue paint.
The lifesize sculpture of St Cuthman in Portland stone was put up last year by millennium celebration group Steyning 2000, which raised £9,000 for the project.
Rosalind Froud, of Church Street, Steyning, saw the damage on her way to church yesterday.
She said: "There is vandalism in Steyning every Friday and Saturday night. Large groups of youths come here at the weekend and congregate in the car park.
"There has been an increased police presence and I do pay tribute to them for that."
St Cuthman is believed to have arrived in Steyning in 681 AD, pushing his crippled mother in a handcart. He founded Steyning's first church because the people there were so kind to him.
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