A church was broken into and vile anti-Christian comments were scrawled in guest and prayer books.

The sacrilegious offence was one of scores of religious hate incidents which took place in Brighton and Hove in the year up to April, an annual report has revealed.

A senior hate incident caseworker for the Racial Harassment Forum referred to it as a “religiously motivated church break-in”.

He said: “Anti-Christian comments were made in church registers and prayer books.”

Police said they were reluctant to name the church in question in case it made it vulnerable to further attacks.

In separate cases, offensive comments were made on an Internet Facebook group linked to a Christian man who was in a relationship with a Muslim woman and anti-Christian graffiti was sprayed.

Further hate crimes included a Nazi flag flown in Wilbury Avenue, Hove, damage against a mosque and anti-Semitic emails being sent to a Jewish person’s workplace.

The caseworker explained how people were attacked with weapons including “knifes, wood/sticks, stones and glass bottles” and pelted with missiles including “stones, eggs, rocks, water bombs, beer cans, beer bottles and dog faeces”.

In a joint response police and Brighton and Hove City Council said: “The police and the council have been working together with communities for some years now to increase confidence and satisfaction in relation to reporting religiously motivated incidents.

“The incidents recorded last year by the jointly managed Partnership Community Safety Team do not present the whole picture but do help us to increase our understanding of tensions between communities and inform the work we do together to increase community cohesion.

“The Partnership Community Safety Team has within it a hate crime team. This team work directly with victims to support them in bringing satisfactory conclusions to their cases.

“It is difficult to tell whether increases or decreases in particular religiously motivated incidents represent a real change in community tension as the actual figures are comparatively low.

“It is, therefore, important that we continue to have strong direct working relationships with those communities to listen to their concerns regarding community tension. The Partnership Community Safety Team will continue to prioritise this work.”