LONDON (AP) – A U.K. judge has sentenced a man to four years for attempting to steal one of the original copies of the the Magna Carta from Salisbury Cathedral in England.
Mark Royden, from Canterbury, Kent, was convicted Friday of using a hammer to try to smash the security case holding the document at Salisbury Cathedral on October 25, 2018.
Royden failed to break the protective glass, and was tackled moments later by tourists and cathedral staff.
“Magna Carta is a document of huge importance to our country and many other countries that share our democratic traditions,” Judge Richard Parkes said in passing the sentence. “This was a determined attempt on a document of huge historical importance.”
The judge praised the “courageous” acts of visitors and staff members who apprehended Royden including tourists Matthew and Alexis Delcambre of New Iberia, Louisiana.