To ask what punishment the guys who cut down sycamore gap tree deserve?

[JorgyPorgy]

I hope those sick thickoes get a jail term but also hefty fine and lengthy community service , planting hundreds of trees . Punishment to fit the crime.
I think they’ve angered & upset so many people globally that they will have targets on their backs now.
That beautiful tree was 300 y o & would have lived hundreds more. Lots of new samplings can’t replace the carbon sink of a mature tree nor give out the oxygen it did, nor support the biodiversity it did. It’s so sad.

I think they should be fined and given lengthy community service. Prisons should be for people who need to be locked up for public protection - violent and sexual offenders.

personally I’m angry (not annoyed) that and sex offenders don’t get longer sentences. It doesn’t make me want a light sentence for these idiots who chopped down the tree.

I'm not sure that comparing this to totally incomparable crimes is helpful really. I know people are saying that it costs a lot to bring this to court but frankly they could have saved the country a lot of money by admitting their guilty early on now they are likely to be made an example of and their punishment will reflect not only their crime but also their enduring dishonesty.

It does mean that the time they serve will be very short though. If you only get 7 years for rape, what will be appropriate for felling a tree?
Sentencing needs a thorough review, but the government won’t do it because the prisons are full. ☹️

I agree that they shouldn’t get a worse sentence than a rapist! Media interest and middle class outrage shouldnt over ride common sense, even if the culprits are a pair of unthinking prats.

You are looking at it from the wrong angle.

Maybe rapists should get longer sentences. Maybe you should be asking for longer sentences for them, not for more lenient ones for these vandals.

I think prison would be pointless as the prisons are filled to capacity, and I don't think they are deemed a risk to the public? Community service I think would be appropriate. I was astounded at someone on the radio yesterday saying they should get 10 years! Really? Rapists and murderers get less than that. I think what they did was awful,but I think you have to keep things in proportion and not just pander to the baying mob.

I think people of all classes and walks of life are outraged by this , it’s not just middle class outrage

I think calling people who are a baying mob, a baying mob, is accurate

And who exactly are those people, the “baying mob”?

They will undoubtedly get a custodial sentence. Sentencing guidelines state maximum ten years.
I'd guess they will get at least three years.

Of course the judge won’t pander to a ‘baying mob’ (whoever they are, I’m not sure who this even refers to?!)

The judge will follow sentencing guidelines. Max is 10 years for criminal damage but I highly doubt they’ll get that much. However, there are a LOT of aggravating factors - the perpetrators pleaded not guilty despite overwhelming evidence which meant a very costly trial, the tree was a significant in terms of heritage, and its loss impacted widely.

I think some people don’t realise that judges follow rules and guidelines. They don’t just make it up. I wish there were far harsher sentences for sex offences and crimes which directly harm a person. I don’t wish the sentence for criminal damage was lower. Entirely possible to think both those things.

So do you think that, when people feel utterly powerless because somebody has deliberately taken away a beautiful thing that brought joy to the lives of so many people for so many years - for absolutely no reason and for no gain to themselves whatsoever other than to narcissistically feed off and have a laugh about the resulting mass devastation they caused - they should just be stoic about it and shrug their shoulders, accepting that the nasty people can freely have whatever they want, but everybody else just has to roll over and give in?

If somebody got a crane with a wrecking ball and demolished your house whilst you were on holiday - just because they thought it would be a tremendous laugh and would hugely upset you when you found out, to much hilarity on their part - would your instinctive, neutral reaction just be "Ah, well, the courts will give them the appropriate punishment" and nonchalantly book into a Premier Inn in the meantime?

Why are you seeking to minimise and criticise people's wholly reasonable anger?

Whatever the legal punishment handed to them, their lives will never be the same again anyway. Everybody will know how hateful and nasty they are, how deceitful and unwilling to own up to their choices, and just how utterly stupid they are for thinking it a wise thing to do in the first place and then going out of their way to carefully provide so much crystal clear evidence that it was them who did it.

Nobody will trust them in anything, nobody will employ them, nobody will use their businesses. Nobody will want to be seen with or identified with them - which is a hugely unfair situation for their poor, innocent children.

Whatever else they do in their lives, they'll always be known as the thick arseholes who deliberately destroyed a beautiful landmark for no purpose whatsoever.

But none of these things will bring back the beautiful tree and world-famous landscape that generations of people have enjoyed. It's the ultimate example of 'this is why we can never have nice things'.

People have a perfect right to be angry at these despicable men and what they did.

It's already decided they will have to serve some time because they're already inside and the Judge said it would be a custodial sentence. I hope they took their toothbrushes with them to Court 😉

Not prison. Why should they cost us and there's barely any space in prison anyway.
But community service for a long time. I agree they should have to learn about woodland management and spend their time planting trees.
Unfortunately whatever happens to them it won't make up for what they've done. Absolute dicks.

Hopefully prison time. Which they absolutely deserve.

They are going to hell when they die, that is for sure. What they did was an act of pure evil.

Quality controllers for the structural integrity of cricket bats made from the wood of the dead tree.

FOUR! 🌳 🏏

I just can’t get over how utterly thick they must be. Presumably they thought that cutting the tree down at night, when there was a powerful storm so highly unlikely to be campers about, would mean they wouldn’t be caught. I can only assume they thought it would be a big thing, in the news, with people shocked - but that the crime would never be solved.

and then the thickos filmed it on one of their own phones! And messaged each other about it. And also didn’t realise that the location of a phone can be identified pretty accurately at specific times. Or that there are cameras everywhere identifying vehicles heading on routes to places.

I mean, how damn thick can you get?

And there's endless "tree surgeons" and "gardeners" on facebook who'll happily cut down a tree or hedge in nesting season and lay plastic grass in a garden. None of them have any care for our environment. Take the money and run and know there won't be any consequences.

Look at that magnificent oak that was cut down in North London the other week. Doesn't appear to be anything that can be done about it.

I just can’t get over how utterly thick they must be

Have you seen their mugshots?

You do feel a sense of incredulity looking at them that THAT was the sperm which beat all the rest to the egg.

The cutting down of the oak has quite rightly been reported to the police.

@Butchyrestingfaceand these people have the vote! It’s truly scary.

I saw a post on the IG of a well known author yesterday criticising the strength of feeling about this pair, and suggesting that their punishment should be lenient because they look as though they are disadvantaged.

Struck me as the worst kind of virtue signalling patronising bullshit. "They look thick so let's #bekind to them". I taught a girl in a SEND class once who had an IQ of 68. Damn right she knew right from wrong. She joined the conservation club and helped me plant trees, despite being intellectually and culturally impoverished.

These scumbags wanted to upset people and destroy something they thought they had power over. Is prison the right answer? Probably not, as they will just learn worse stuff in there. A lengthy period of properly administered community and environmental service is probably more appropriate.

Hmmm, this is in jest about the oxygen part, but not about the other parts:

they shouldn’t be allowed to benefit from anything that is connected to trees for the rest of their lives.

No paper to write on or read, no books, no toilet paper. No fruit from trees. No medicine from trees, no oxygen, no cider, nothing from any animal or insect that relies on trees. No Christmas tree. No wood furniture or anything that has a bit of wood in it. No wood to burn if they get cold.

They should be forced to live a tree less life.