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.

rosydreams · Yesterday 12:32

i heard they posted their crime on social media for attention .Anyone who posts a crime on social media for attention should get a tougher sentence as a deterrent

I'd have to disagree on the grounds that loads of stupid criminals make convictions easy by posting their misdeeds online!

The tree isn't actually dead, it's put out runners and there are 12 shoots, which are being monitored. In a few years, they'll decide which to keep and manage for a new tree / trees. It's a shame none of us will be alive to see it.

On the value of the damage, I'm not sure how they arrived at the sum of £650,000 odd; the £1,500 for the repair of the wall was simple, that's what the mason charged. I expect that the lawyers will argue over the value, at some point.

Exactly.

Glad you’re not relevant to anything to do with this then. Don’t you have any soul?

That argument might have some traction if it were the legal property of a person who decides to destroy/demolish it and people in the area who loved looking at it as they passed by are distraught, but you may say tough, it's none of their business...

But these men categorically did not own the tree or the wall, and the only right they had was the same as all other members of the public: to enjoy looking at it/photographing it/standing next to it/lightly touching it - but not in any way damaging or destroying it.

Going on that reasoning, if I am an art philistine, does that mean that I can go and slash a Van Gogh painting in a museum - with the 'justification that "it means nothing to me personally"?

Most young children learn from an early age that, if something doesn't belong to you, you don't spoil it. These men who are accused are very, very far from being young children anymore.

Also, if people don't care about the tree, because it's 'just a tree', why should they magically care any more about the wall, which is 'just a load of old stones'?

Also, if people don't care about the tree, because it's 'just a tree', why should they magically care any more about the wall, which is 'just a load of old stones'?

There are miles and mile of wall remaining despite centuries of the stones being repurposed the small section of wall damaged could be repaired or replaced so the wall is arguably less important whereas the tree was unique. The fact that the felling was done so both were damaged just shows that the culprits are total shitbags who care for nothing.

replant 10,000 trees by hand. No machinery allowed, only a wheelbarrow with a flat tyre and a past its best spade.

Well these trees would then be badly planted and likely not to survive, unless someone supervises them at every step.... Isn't there a river in New Zealand that was given a personhood? So polluting it is a murder attempt by law. I think this tree was part of English cultural landscape so not just any tree. I still have failed to understand their motivation for cutting it down. If it is just any tree, why did they travel the distance to saw down this one?

Totally agree and community service which directly relates to their crime, so tree replanting, heritage support, that kind of thing.

Because they saw the significance of it and the cultural value it had so decided to destroy it because they knew the distress it would cause. some people are sick and thrive on causing others upset. Sadists. It was about power for them. Mentality wise I don’t think they’re so different from murderers.

Charge them for the cost of the tree, (I read somewhere around £600k?) Plus the cost of replacing like for like.

They'll probably have to borrow one of those machines they have in Japan, they can dig up a mature tree plus root ball to transport mature trees to new locations. I'm sure there will be some nice sycamore condemned to be chopped down for road widening somewhere. Replant.

Yeah, I know that's not exactly a serious prospect, but prison is pointless. Hit them financially.

Plus community service planting trees, say 5000 a piece?

Prison, to be released once they've grown a tree as tall as them without some idiot wrecking it. It's bloody hard!

Yep the remoteness of the site rules out bringing in a replacement mature tree. The only way you could get anything even close to a mature tree in place would be military helicopter

I’m sure those idiots can find a way to pay for that military operation to fix their destruction

Ohhhhh I would love to see them given a big fat bill 💵 💵 💵 💵 🚁🌳

Yes, some people do just seem to have unfathomably nasty personalities. Not even stealing something so they can have it for free, but deliberately destroying something - at quite some effort - just to stop other people from enjoying it.

There was a thread on here the other day about truly disgraceful parents who would promise their own excited children something they dearly wanted - even taking them to look at them and choose one - knowing all along that they would later invent an excuse why they couldn't get it after all; and actually did that because they found it fun to upset a child for no reason whatsoever.

It must signify a seriously sadistic personality disorder.

Honestly!!

stop I want off this planet

there is thousands more things wrong with this country, than a man cutting a tree down for jail time!!

come on!! There is murders pedos sex trafficking grooming gangs. But noooo some guys cut a tree down and he should be destroyed. Wooowwww just wooowwwwww

Can you quote the posts that suggest rapists murderers etc don't deserve jail time because I can't see them. It possible to think more than one group of offenders should be in prison.

Just because there are worse acts - which people also condemn - that doesn't somehow make a less bad act OK.

I can't just walk down the street and randomly punch somebody in the face - and then protest that murdering somebody would be a much, much worse act when I'm receiving the due consequences, so therefore how ridiculous of them to want to punish me.

I'd be happy to see them get the max 10 years. I really do think that this is one of those instances where a meaningful deterrent is needed, to reduce the risk of other scrotes looking to get a little social media infamy through similar acts of vandalism.

Agree with this

Me too 😅😅😅

Community service in something to do with planting trees...prison. Wouldn't work in this situation...they need to give back what they have taken...

Is the verdict in already?

Exactly!! 👍

I really don't think community service is remotely adequate.

If they get a light sentence, like community service, I'd fully expect a rise in similar crimes. The case is extremely high profile and I think there's every chance that a light punishment would encourage other malicious idiots to make names for themselves by carrying out similar acts of vandalism.

Given the maximum sentence for the crime is 10 years imprisonment, a non-custodial sentence is akin to saying this is a trivial crime.