Page 4 | Anyone else following the Sycamore Gap trial?

HowManyMintCLubsIsTooMany · 2025-05-06T18:13:42+00:00

I am baffled as to how these two men do not realise how ludicrous their defences sound despite the obvious evidence against them. The judge must be exasperated!

Quercus3 · 09/05/2025 19:07

RabbitPlate · 09/05/2025 16:31

I’m going to get lynched for this I just know it, but what pisses me off about this, other than the fact these pricks did this for seemingly no good reason, is the way the media and government are behaving about it, as though the government don’t fell important, ancient, native trees on a regular basis without a second thought. This should open our eyes to the fact that many trees are vital for our environment, for our survival, this tree was iconic and loved by many, but so are loads that the government and councils fell for a variety of selfish reasons. This, to me, is part of a bigger picture. But most people are missing it because they’re focused on this one tree.

Im sad it’s gone. But I’m also said about the hundreds of acres of vitally important ancient woodland that this government and the last have wrecked and continue to wreck, especially under Labour’s new planning bill and about all the nature that people have wrecked to put down their plastic grass or whatever - yet they’re all sad about this tree.

People only seem to care about nature when it suits them.

Edited

Totally agree

DodgersJammyAndOtherwise · 09/05/2025 19:09

GetDressedYouMerryGentlemen · 09/05/2025 12:13

I'm sure I read somewhere that it is theoretically 10 years but that noone has ever been given a custodial sentence for felling a tree before.

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It's the damage to Hadrians Wall as well though.

Disturbia81 · 09/05/2025 19:11

They remind me of that uncaring, dead eyed, insidious look and feeling I get from fairground workers.

nocoolnamesleft · 09/05/2025 19:12

DodgersJammyAndOtherwise · 09/05/2025 19:09

It's the damage to Hadrians Wall as well though.

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Let's be honest, a lot of it is about damage to the local tourism industry. Which is another thing understandably pissing off locals.

DodgersJammyAndOtherwise · 09/05/2025 19:14

nocoolnamesleft · 09/05/2025 19:12

Let's be honest, a lot of it is about damage to the local tourism industry. Which is another thing understandably pissing off locals.

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They look like a pair of brain dead munters.

I hope they lock them both up and they are never allowed a tree cutting license again (if there is such a thing).

They only did it because they could and because it would have given them a feeling of power. They must have dicks the size of Rice Krispies.

DodgersJammyAndOtherwise · 09/05/2025 19:17

Penko25 · 09/05/2025 15:33

I think it’s all a bit OTT. They haven’t killed someone. It’s a tree. I have some empathy for the older one. His mum walked out on the family. His Dad then hanged himself. He has no friends. I think he needs help & some compassion tbh.

My Mum killed herself. I had a shitty childhood and am having a hard time as an adult but that makes me like trees more and less likely to cut a tree down.

A wanker is a wanker no matter their background.

AlecTrevelyan006 · 09/05/2025 19:23

They would have been better off pleading guilty and apologising for their stupidity.

myplace · 09/05/2025 20:07

It is different from trees cut for progress’ though!

We need to avoid cutting down trees yes, but sometimes there’s a purpose and we use a planning system to decide if it’s a good enough purpose.

These guys did that for no reason at all.

mouthpipette · 09/05/2025 20:09

Punishment ?
Prison is a waste of money.
Lots of community service for a long time.

mouthpipette · 09/05/2025 20:10

and if they sell their story... all money to be paid to a charity.

Genevieva · 09/05/2025 20:10

Seriously low IQs.

TheignT · 09/05/2025 20:12

Quercus3 · 09/05/2025 19:07

Totally agree

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I agree as well. Two years ago the council cut down six mature trees that were between my back fence and the road. Now we just have some overgrown grass full of dandelions. All the birds are gone. Don't see the council getting prosecuted.

SammyScrounge · 09/05/2025 20:16

LadyDanburysHat · 09/05/2025 11:42

They clearly did not expect the level of vitriol and backlash that happened from it either. Does anyone know what the maximum sentence is that they can be given?

10 years, I heard, athough it is unlikely they'll get that.

thyroidquery · 09/05/2025 20:21

Did the police or anyone ever say how they were found out or implicated initially?

After it happened the guy at Plankey Mill and a teenager were accused very publicly of felling the tree and were on the hook for some time.

strawlight · 09/05/2025 20:25

thyroidquery · 09/05/2025 20:21

Did the police or anyone ever say how they were found out or implicated initially?

After it happened the guy at Plankey Mill and a teenager were accused very publicly of felling the tree and were on the hook for some time.

One of them rang police to dob the other in, who in turn spragged on his former bestie. It’s very clear they did it, but since they’re both blaming each other (and have since fallen out) we might never find out why. Aresholes. I hope they get custodial sentences.

ChardonnaysBeastlyCat · 09/05/2025 20:29

RabbitPlate · 09/05/2025 16:31

I’m going to get lynched for this I just know it, but what pisses me off about this, other than the fact these pricks did this for seemingly no good reason, is the way the media and government are behaving about it, as though the government don’t fell important, ancient, native trees on a regular basis without a second thought. This should open our eyes to the fact that many trees are vital for our environment, for our survival, this tree was iconic and loved by many, but so are loads that the government and councils fell for a variety of selfish reasons. This, to me, is part of a bigger picture. But most people are missing it because they’re focused on this one tree.

Im sad it’s gone. But I’m also said about the hundreds of acres of vitally important ancient woodland that this government and the last have wrecked and continue to wreck, especially under Labour’s new planning bill and about all the nature that people have wrecked to put down their plastic grass or whatever - yet they’re all sad about this tree.

People only seem to care about nature when it suits them.

Edited

You are right.

They are all vandals.

BoreOfWhabylon · 09/05/2025 20:59

Coventina was the Romano-British goddess of wells and springs. There's a spring named after her near Sycamore Gap and a Roman shrine to her there. The Roman soldiers used to leave offerings - coins, inscriptions etc.

The writer Ann Louise Avery posted this on Twitter the day the destruction of the tree was discovered

"What will happen to the men who felled the Great Tree on Picts' Wall, asked Old Fox. The Lady Coventina will rise from her course below, said the King, & draw their torn & tattered souls down past the sweet harebells & the glass beads & the rings of jet, down past the soldiers' bones & the luck-worn coins, down into the far earth where all the dark things of this world are buried in the end of ends."
https://x.com/AnneLouiseAvery/status/1707384394984394985

Anyone else following the Sycamore Gap trial?

BoreOfWhabylon · 09/05/2025 21:08

Coventina is coming for those fuckers and she will have her vengeance in this world or the next.

Viviennemary · 09/05/2025 21:51

HowManyMintCLubsIsTooMany · 09/05/2025 14:52

That was to @Viviennemary obviously!

Certainly not. I do not approve of vandalism and destruction but it's a tree. Not an animal or a humanbeing or even a great work of art.

Penko25 · 09/05/2025 21:54

Some Murderers and rapists get less media attention than these two. It’s ridiculous. It’s a TREE.

Penko25 · 09/05/2025 21:58

DodgersJammyAndOtherwise · 09/05/2025 19:17

My Mum killed herself. I had a shitty childhood and am having a hard time as an adult but that makes me like trees more and less likely to cut a tree down.

A wanker is a wanker no matter their background.

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That’s your story. It’s a fact the many people are impacted hugely by trauma & for some it leads them down the wrong path. We need to show some understanding & compassion in those circumstances, especially when it just involves a tree.

ChardonnaysBeastlyCat · 10/05/2025 00:21

Penko25 · 09/05/2025 21:58

That’s your story. It’s a fact the many people are impacted hugely by trauma & for some it leads them down the wrong path. We need to show some understanding & compassion in those circumstances, especially when it just involves a tree.

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That tree was worth more than those two sad idiots put together.

3678194b · 10/05/2025 01:18

Despite them both turning up to court in balaclavas and sunglasses so the press couldn't get photos now their ugliest mugs ID photos are plastered over the papers.

Both their testomonies were laughable. One saying that the other took both his car and phone that night and the other denying texts were about 'what they did last night' and about where he was. I wonder what their partners think. They must have knew what they did!

Hopefully the fact that they've been remanded into custody before sentencing means they will get a custodial sentence. They probably would have been better off admitting it and pleading guilty.

Cognacsoft · 10/05/2025 02:44

Viviennemary · 09/05/2025 21:51

Certainly not. I do not approve of vandalism and destruction but it's a tree. Not an animal or a humanbeing or even a great work of art.

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It is a work of art though.
Someone planted the tree there and they probably never saw the tree in its glory days.
But they had the vision to know it would look beautiful.
It was a landmark just like the Angel of the North.
And the tree won an award in 2016.

Ritasueandbobtoo9 · 10/05/2025 04:01

i think this is overkill for a tree. Why on earth a custodial sentence? Gaoled for stupidity when rapists walk free.