Man charged over attempted theft of the Magna Carta from Salisbury Cathedral | London Evening Standard

Man charged over attempted theft of the Magna Carta from Salisbury CathedralThe casing which surrounds the Magna Carta in Salisbury was damaged last OctoberPA

A 46-year-old man has been charged with the attempted theft of a copy of the Magna Carta from Salisbury Cathedral.

Mark Royden, who lives in Devon, has also been charged with criminal damage in connection to the incident last October. according to Wiltshire Police.

He is set to appear in Salisbury Magistrates' Court on June 28.

The incident occurred on October 25 last year.

Salisbury Cathedral is home to one of the only remaining copies of the documentREUTERS

The Magna Carta was not damaged and nobody was injured in the incident.

After the incident the manuscript was held in storage while work was carried out to replace the outer casing but it went back on display in February.

The Magna Carta is a charter of rights agreed to and signed by King John of England in 1215.

It established for the first time the principle that everybody, including the king, was subject to the law.

Only four copies of the document survive to this day and Salisbury Cathedral holds the best preserved example