‘Stealing joy’: the sadness and symbolism of the crime at Sycamore Gap

Many saw the beloved tree that Adam Carruthers and Daniel Graham cut down as a part of north-east England's DNA

It was just a tree," said a mystified Adam Carruthers, one of the two men who illegally cut down the tree at Sycamore Gap in the early hours of a stormy night nearly two years ago. It was almost as if someone had been murdered."

Carruthers was right about the reaction to the felling. Many likened its loss to that of a good friend or relative. Its destruction prompted feelings of sadness, grief and then blind fury. Some people wept.