Two men, Adam Carruthers and Daniel Graham, are on trial for cutting down the iconic Sycamore Gap tree in Northumberland during Storm Agnes in September 2023. Both deny charges of criminal damage to the tree and nearby Hadrian's Wall. During the trial, Carruthers expressed his disbelief at the intense media and public reaction, comparing it to an event as grave as a murder. He noted the rapid spread of news about the incident on social media, revealing his astonishment at the significance attributed to what he considered merely a tree.
On the morning I woke up I had looked online and it was all over Facebook. I was thinking what's going on here? It was everywhere.
I couldn't really understand why there was such a major outbreak, it was almost as if someone had been murdered.
I couldn't get my head round it. The way it was travelling through the news, I was amazed how something so small could create so much publicity.
My understanding was it was just a tree, I couldn't understand why everyone was sharing it, every second post, it was about this tree.
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