On the tenth anniversary of his daughter?s violent death and botched murder trial Dave Middleton still finds some sections of Bermuda doing its best to kick over traces.

Last month the Parks Department cut down the casuarina tree in Ferry Reach that had become a memorial to Rebecca who was murdered just feet away.

Mr. Middleton said: ?It seems awful suspicious that tree got cut down just as we come to the tenth anniversary of Becky?s death.?

But ever willing to be reasonable he notes: ?But on the other hand it is an evasive species. They are trying to replace it with Bermuda Cedar, I agree with that it?s great. ?It?s the right way to go but the timing is suspect.

?Is it a terrible thing to cut the tree down? It?s like a lot of other things ? it?s not the actual act. It?s the actual thinking behind it.?

He doubts anyone in parks would be ignorant of the tree?s significance. ?When they were cutting it down it wasn?t a matter of hours before someone noticed it and the word was out.?

But of course he never got an official apology. ?I don?t think they feel they need to apologise to anybody for anything.?

He recalled the comments of former Attorney General Dame Lois Browne-Evans who years ago had questioned the need for an inquiry into the botched legal case to nail the killers and had asked: ?What do we owe the Middleton family??

Mr. Middleton said: ?I didn?t hear anybody object to those comments. I think the official line from Bermuda is ? we owe them nothing.?

Thankfully not everyone in Bermuda is so callous and he is enormously grateful for the family who have donated land dedicated in Becky?s name.

A half-acre of wooded hillside near Ord Road was given by Mr. and Mrs. Walter Cook to the National Trust and will be known as the Rebecca Middleton Nature Reserve.

?That?s so positive and typical of the people of Bermuda,? said Mr. Middleton. But unsurprisingly, Ferry Reach will always be his mind.

?I have probably been there around eight times. It brings back so many memories. For some reason I feel closer to Becky when I am there. I don?t know why.

?I am not a person who believes in the supernatural. I don?t believe there?s a ghost there. I just feel more intense about Becky and all the things we did together.

?That place doesn?t scare me or bring bad memories. But I don?t have to be any place to get a cold chill sometimes to think about how Becky died.

?I still wake up in the middle of the night thinking about it, with that real uncomfortable ill feeling.

?That spot doesn?t particularly doesn?t generate that for me but as people we need but as people it?s nice to have some physical place for our thoughts to go.?