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

I have a family member who sexually abused his niece. He got 3 years, 18 months actually in prison. Another family member SA his own daughter. He pled guilty and served no time at all, just a 3 year community based rehabilitation programme for sexual offenders. Mind boggling. 🤷🏻‍♀️

It’s not that they deserve less than 4 years. It’s that people who commit heinous violent crimes that leave others with lifelong trauma deserve more.

He was also a minor.

Don't minimise what they did. There is an inherent wickedness in doing something in which you gain pleasure from hurting people.

It's reductive to just say "tree".

That they could do this means they could do more, and they have done.

There is one act where they could do everyone a favour.

But there are different aspects of the law being used as equivalents here.

The main issue is that rape is harder to prosecute, not that the tree issue is more important or serious. It’s likely easier for the tree offence to be evidenced and proven in court, whereas rape tends to be less straightforward due to the nature of the crimes.

Have you taken any proactive steps to address this, ie complaining to the right people, voting the right government in etc?

The tree was deliberately planted there in the late 19th century as a landscape feature.
It’s not like an oak tree, which takes ages to mature or anything, they’re not hard to grow, more like a big weed. I get loads of baby sycamores popping up on my drive every year.

5 years jail is ridiculous and a new tree could be planted there easily. It would reach a good size in 25 years

Although he was a man when when convicted, he was a minor when the crime was committed and the sentencing guidelines regarding minors is different. Do you have an example of a man at the time of the crime being given a suspended sentence for rape?

And how does that make it a victimless crime? It caused a lot of pain to all the people around the world who loved it.

don't disagree with you, I live in the North East too. Ridiculous thing to do, just trying to understand where is sits within all the horrible crimes that happen daily.
There's so much vandalism that goes on I don't know how they can explain why this particular act of vandalism deserves a punishment 100 x worse than other acts of vandalism.
But I love people getting their cumupence (can't spell 😆) so would love to of seen their faces when they got handed the sentence. Wish fly tippers got the same kind of sentences!

Ozhan Ongun is another…

It wasn’t ‘just’ a tree.

Two experienced tree surgeons (and part time tree butchers) spending their days out in the countryside, doing something very much like the work they chose to do in their normal lives? Sounds like fun, not punishment.

The sentence for the tree is fitting.

Sentencing for rape is a completely different matter - I'd have no problem with that starting at ten years, but, let's face it, most men get let off 'because it's not fair to destroy this young/respectable man's life' if they even get to prosecution, thanks to societal misogyny, so they'd probably get even fewer convictions if the sentencing were harsher.

This wasn’t a victimless crime. That tree held an important place in thousands of hearts.

Sure. Rees Newman. Two years suspended. There are hundreds of cases going back to 2010, and presumably even before that if records are held. There are cases where men have actually been allowed to leave court with no further action after a rape conviction, as punishment was not deemed necessary, let alone suspended sentences. Other non custodial sentences are also used, like community service orders. Rees Newman was just one man not imprisoned due to overcrowding, as recently as 2023. The government specifically asked that judges considered other sentencing for rapists, due to the overcrowding issue at the time.

That is absolutely disgusting and depressing I agree. Anyone committing any sex crime should do time. Hard time. With hard men.

But I also think they deserved time for cutting down that iconic historic tree.

Except it wasn’t. Really amazed that people can’t see that. And it’s so sad that the cultural fabric of today’s society is so thin.

And comparing it to rape is whataboutery. Convictions and sentences for rape are ridiculous, obscene even. But reducing the sentences of the Sycamore Gap convicts won’t improve that. It’s a straw man argument.

None of the Google results you have posted relate to a conviction for rape though.

I am a victim of rape and go into great detail about how fucked our police force, courts and jury’s let people like me down, it’s disgusting and something needs to change.
The incident with the tree is a separate issue and I have no sympathy, a moronic thing to do so fuck them.

There are always worse crimes. They committed a pre planned act of vandalism then laughed about it afterwards. Justice system is there to serve as a deterrent to others too. That tree was an absolute landmark. Children went to paint pictures of it. People walked just to see it. Two idiots took that beauty away from us all. In a world where there’s little simple beauty left. It meant a huge amount for us in the north east.

No thanks

hard labour and floggings? Won’t happen

also free PlayStations is a myth

It’s shocking to me that a tree (however old and wonderful) has led to jail time, when men looking at child abuse images don’t get that, sexual assaulters, rapists, very depressing.