LOCAL couple Dee and Mark Saunders were devastated when they recently visited their son’s memorial tree in Crediton Cemetery to take down the decorations they had put up on Christmas Eve and found that the tree had been stripped bare.

Their son Wyll died in April 2000 aged just two and a half years and it will be the 20th anniversary of his death this April.

Dee and Mark planted the memorial tree near Wyll’s grave 17 years ago and each year they decorate the tree with items of sentimental value including a Father Christmas, a ceramic star, a star made of metal and a ceramic robin.

Dee said: “It’s heartbreaking, who would do such a thing?

“We’ve been hanging things on the tree every Christmas Eve since we planted it and taking them down in January - who would steal from a child’s memorial tree?

“I contacted Mid Devon District Council who told me that one of their workman had removed a heart shaped ornament because it was broken, but there was nothing else on the tree at the time.”

Dee and Mark are asking whoever took the ornaments if they could return them to the bottom of Wyll’s memorial tree in the cemetery.ORDER YOUR DIGITAL EDITION HERE