Online reaction
When the story went online from a source in the town who posted about it, the reaction was huge. Thousands of people from the UK and thousands more reacted to it. They were sharing it all over the place and bashing the vandals who were guilty. No one liked seeing the rock destroyed.
It was in part due to the pressure that was building online for the boys to come clean as well. They knew about the story and how it was circulating the internet and were feeling even more terrible about everything. They didn’t want to be the most hated people in the UK.