4 yrs for cutting down tree, no jail time for rape

there are 2 main reasons why the majority of us are law abiding citizens

1. morality
2. legal consequences

and I think criminal damage very much falls under (2) as to why people don’t. For high profile cases such as this a statement is made as to the consequences of criminal damage in the 6 figure range (even though cut off is £5,000)

If you pick it out of a statute book. But that's not the whole story.

I don’t.

It was a hundreds of years old eco system for wildlife. It would take hundreds of years to create a similar environment.

Of course women being raped is more important, but let’s not be ridiculous. The crimes these particular men committed should be punished. Just as rapists should be.

You have a valid point about the contrast between the length of this sentence and of rape sentencing more generally, but let’s not pretend that what these guys did wasn’t idiotic vandalism on a national scale.

Rapists should get more prison time, these guys shouldn’t get less.

You definitely get prisons for sex offenders, there is one not far from where I am

www.gov.uk/guidance/littlehey-prison

Yes.

More backtracking.

I’m not stuck on anything, you mentioned rape not SA originally and that’s what I originally commented on. The fact you want to now go down another path doesn’t mean I have to follow you.

I don’t even get the abstract for scientific publication comment. Weird.

Oh, and I am English and am no more annoyed about the tree than I am about any other criminal damage. It is illegal, they were found guilty, they were given sentences. Justice was served.

I don't understand what purpose jail time will serve for anyone - I'm sure they've already learned a lesson, I doubt they're a danger to the public and it's taking up two crucial prison places that could be filled by, for instance, men found guilty of downloading images of child sexual abuse - I've seen case after case where such dangerous men get no jail time at all.

In cases like the tree vandalism surely the most important aspect should be to make reparations to the affected community in some way?

Four years for two working class blokes for upsetting a few middle-class walkers! A tree worth about £400 and they didn't even take it away.
Middle Class students who smash very expensive windows and vandalise statues causing thousands of ponds of damage in the name of "Just Stop Oil" usually get conditional discharge.
It is certainly 2 Tiers for justice.

They should have got longer.
Rapists should also receive longer sentences.

Agree with this. No end of trees up and down the country get cut down without permission in neighbour disputes. People generally don’t go to prison. Cutting the tree down was terrible but it seems if it’s a famous tree then the punishment is more severe?

Obviously it varies by area but as that was a 'National scandal' I'm not surprised they went down at all and I think they should have.

You're acting like 2 rapists have been let off so they can have the cells but we have no proof to suggest that at all.

Is sentencing for rape a joke in this country, yes. Absolutely. Does that mean other crimes should go unpunished? I don't think so.

@Barnbrack i think the problem isn’t that you are saying rape sentences are long enough or there are enough convictions or the whole damn thing is a shitshow because it is and it has been for awhile - I mean ffs marital rape only began illegal in 1991.

no it’s the implication that the sentence is actually too much for what they did - and it isn’t for me it is exactly what it should be

and the set of guidelines for both in terms of sentencing are quite separate

Because I’m sweaty? Again, batshit.

The reason they got those sentences is because people lost their minds over a tree. I live in the North East. The way people went on about it was ridiculous. I am not condoning vandalism and yes the perpetrators should be punished. There is lot of vile vandalism near us including killing animals on allotments and arson. None of it is ever punished with substantial sentencing. It was a Sycamore probably one of the worst tree species there is. We had to have two cut down in our garden about ten years ago. One the stump was killed off. The other stump was not killed. The untreated stump is now a fully grown tree again.

You forgot the bit about them inciting violence and being racist.

Sentences for rape are far too lenient.
At the same time 4 years for criminal damage is about right. Shame the sentence isn’t the same for all criminal damage.