Hampered by his left knee for so long, he had just got back to chest-pumping all-rounder status in the home summer when he was sawn off by his hamstring.

A giant gorilla statue which was stolen from a Lanarkshire garden centre a year ago was "sawn in half" before being discarded under a hedge, according to its owner.

He said his lifelong love affair with theatre stemmed in part from seeing his sister being sawn in half as a conjuror's assistant at a local music hall.

A statue of British naval officer James Cook, who in 1770 charted Sydney’s coast, was sawn off at the ankles, and a Queen Victoria monument was doused in red paint.

Prosecutors said the men had sawn through part of a window grating in advance and re-attached it to get into the building as quickly as possible during the heist.