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.

Chop their trouser-trees off.

Did they say why they did it?

Always saddens me whenever people pointlessly cut down trees, and this case really made my blood boil. Just what was the point?! So they could feel excited about the outage they'd caused? What a pathetic pair of worthless tossers. Were their lives so utterly devoid of meaning or purpose to need the infamy?

Their punishment should be a fine of such magnitude that it leaves them in financial ruin for the rest of their lives, such that they regret their actions forever more.

No doubt they'll just get a slap on the wrist.

The thing is it was just so nihilistic and their actions since are not understandable. It’s like they are aliens. It’s why there is such a massive fuss, because we can understand the human impulses and urges that lead people to murder and rape etc, even whilst finding them abhorrent, we recognise them as human. This was just fucking bleak. We are collectively responding to that bleak, end of the world nihilism.

I don’t think a custodial sentence would serve much purpose.

However they should pay for the value of damage done (apparently around £750,000, adding both tree and damage to the wall) and have a lengthy community sentence.

Seeing as they seem to know about tree felling, a year each of working for nothing in forestry would be appropriate.

Yes. This.
Taking pleasure in deliberately ruining or taking away something that made so many people happy and was such an important part of our heritage. I can't get my head around how sick inside you would have to be to want to do this.
Custodial for more than 2 years so that the crime is never 'spent', and the hugest fine possible.

Send them to logging grounds next winter to plant 50,000 saplings each.
12 hour days, 7 days a week until its done.
Worthless arrogant tossers.

They're on trial because they've pled not guilty.

Hung in chains from the largest oak tree in the UK.

Erect a pillory at Sycamore Gap, pop them in it and have a good supply of rotten fruit and veg for passers-by to demonstrate their opinion of such vandalism.

will be shocked if they get prison time, as the kids stabbing each other in our town centre are recently getting suspended sentences! And read an article yesterday of a dad who had 1000s of videos of CSA... no prison time at all. it's shocking

Cut their hands off so they can't do it again!!

Seriously I am really stumped (no pun intended) as to an appropriate punishment for the pair. They really don't seem to care about what they've done. They may see going to prison as a laugh and something that gives them kudos amongst their peers and to be honest our prisons will probably teach them more nefarious things to do.

They need to pay financially and it's going to cost a lot to repair the wall which sometimes gets forgotten in all of this.

I'm not even sure tagging them and not allowing them freedom that way is going to work and need to work to pay back all those costs.

I hope the powers that be come up with a just punishment.

Agree with this entirely.

Thank you for the clarification.

As long as they would be monitored & the service enforced then I'd be happy to see them get as many hours as possible. I'd prefer that than the expense of keeping them in prison

Prison would NOT be pointless. The point of prison isn't just to punish people for doing something wrong - it's to keep decent people outside of prison safe. So people who go around chopping down trees can't continue to do so and ruin the environment for the rest of us.

Anyway, I think they are in for a custodial sentence and so do they because the last trial had to be halted because one of the offenders seriously self harmed himself in an effort to avoid going to trial and has spent a lot of time in hospital. it didn't work obviously, they just wait for you to get better then re schedule the trial.

That proves how fucking dumb they are as there is evidence of them doing it on their phones.
The trial costs should be paid back by them too.

It just seems that they are part of a section of society who think it’s funny to to be a bit contrarian and destroy other peoples pleasure in things. They don’t have moral values, think people who do are Idiots and they like to see what they can get away with. That’s why it’s so depressing.

Assuming they are found guilty. I think the sentencing guidelines for whatever they’ve been charged with (criminal damage?) should be applied at the max end of these.

I would not go for the veggie throwing but the shaming in public with everyone allowed to go and give them a solid piece of their minds, why not? And I am only half tongue in cheek about it. Make them experience the damage and hurt they have caused to so many.

It would cost little to the taxpayer, be a very powerful deterrent against re-offending or for other idiots to be tempted to do the same (it sadly attracted a lot of attention), especially in these days of social media.

And make them plant thousands of trees too.

That was me and yes I was being ironic, but they are idiots and what they’ve done is awful.

You're all too soft. I won't settle for less than hanging, drawing, and quartering in front of all their loved ones and then their entrails hung for display at the Tower of London. Seems proportionate.

4 years in clink, they’ll do 18 months. Sends a message.

A hefty 5 years in prison .
The area was known as Sycamore Gap . It could be seen via the road on an extremely remote area , so it was a landmark .
Much loved by many people for all the reasons already listed by other posters .
A prison sentence will show that you cannot ruin , deface , knockdown , spoil etc, something iconic for whatever reason .
They are from my county (Cumbria ) and decided to drive to the next county to take part in willful damage .
It should be classed as the damage to a national treasure . It was a national treasure .
Paintings were sold of it , postcards , fridge magnets etc . It was that important to people, and they should not get off with community service .

I think there are two elements: financially, I'd like to see them replace the monetary value of the tree and the wall. So, £750k ÷2: £325 each. Either in terms of selling up their valuables or unpaid work for local forestry commission. In terms of the 'impact' of what they've done - I think they should lose access to both paid work & the notoriety of SM, during that repayment period. £325k worth of labour will take some time. Or they could choose Debtors prison, costs added on.
Of course, it's a tree & a wall, not a person, but accountability has to be shown to have happened, especially in a high profile case.

That tree probably did more for the world than many people do including people who don’t see the value of trees. It’s more than mindless vandalism, this was morally and ethically bankrupt. I hope they get what they really deserve , whether they’re acquitted or not.

Yes and or the stocks! I quite like idea of the shame walk that Cersei Lannister is made to do in Game of Thrones 😄