Londoner Georgia Savva complained to police after a curry delivery driver from a local Bangladeshi restaurant was caught on CCTV deliberately removing and destroying a Palm Sunday cross on the wall by her door.
The 48-year-old found the cross, displayed by the door for eight years, strewn in tatters on the doormat as she left for work on the morning of 12 June.
Her two children checked CCTV camera footage from the previous evening. Mrs Savva was shocked to find the culprit was a delivery driver from her favourite local takeaway of many years, in Southgate.
The CCTV footage shows the driver forcefully pulling the cross away from the wall in two attempts, then throwing the pieces on the ground. A few seconds later, Mrs Savva’s teenage son opens the door to be greeted cheerfully by the driver, and hands him cash payment including a generous tip.
Mrs Savva, a churchgoer, is “heartbroken” and “disgusted” by the incident and reported it to police as an anti-religious hate crime.
The restaurant has issued an apology and stated that they have “taken immediate action to suspend the driver”.