Sycamore Gap tree felled | Man in his 60s also arrested

hilts said:
I think 5 years would be mad and I'm a tree hugger:-)

I would have them cleaning up wooded areas every weekend for a year. They don't really belong in prison unless there is previous stuff they have done.
Click to expand...
Absolute fucking wrong uns, definitely a prison sentence, the tree was valued at £700.000 i think, then add on the factor of actually what it was there's only one conclusion...
 
WT86 said:
Save the jail money and just use these pictures to teach kids the definition of "local simpleton" for 30 years.

4963.jpg
Click to expand...

One of the left looks like the old man from Home Alone, the one of the right looks like he still has to wear nappies.
 
Blue Llama said:
I would agree that cutting down any healthy tree without due reason should be a crime but let's be realistic. This has been hyped up beyond rationality. The tree was even reported as having a value of £60k!! As what, firewood? It's a sycamore , the weed of the tree family. Where are the other sycamores that sprouted from It's seeds? Presumably removed by the NT to maintain this one's celebrity status. Far more impressive trees have been felled without sanction. Only recently a pubco ordered one cut down and got away with an apology. As others have said the pair are totally stupid but the tariff should fit the crime not the level of hype.
Click to expand...
I doubt you'd get the same punishment for destroying the Mona Lisa, as you would for destroying my wife's one evening in covid lockdown portrait of me before the barbers re-opened. Doubt they would be valued the same either, eventhough I have a nicer smile.

Profile matters. They didn't go chop down any old sycamore that wouldn't have had much impact. They went for one that would get all the attention. So there is imo logic in a punishment being relative to its percieved value, whatever you or I may think of that.

I wonder how that conversation came up. And whether either of them had had that idea from much earlier in life.
 
The old man that was initially suspected (and presumed guilty by many online) that the thread title still refers to seems to have been forgotten about. Must have been a bit of an unwanted ordeal, being linked with all that.
 
What puzzles me is how there is only one sycamore tree there. Around here sycamore self seed everywhere. Cracks in pavements, your lawn, your hanging baskets, sides of bridges etc, they a bloody weed tree around here, growing every fucking where.
Yet somehow this sycamore didn't reseed at all ! Odd.
 
I'm With Stupid said:
I get where you're coming from. As terrible as it is, there's some logic to stealing an old lady's purse, robbing a bank or selling drugs. But stuff like this, and vandalism in general is just completely mindless. They should be punished for fucking stupidity as much as anything else.
Click to expand...
The trial Judge won’t say this when passing sentence but I also expect she will add a bit on because they both had a trial running utterly preposterous and hopeless defences, which wholly supports your stupidity point.

I’m struggling to imagine any competent criminal barrister advising them to have a trial based on the evidence and so it’s safe to assume, at least on the balance of probabilities, that they both had trials contrary to the advice that their legal representatives gave them.

Quite telling they’ve allocated a High Court Judge to a criminal damage trial too. I think she’ll properly stick the boot in and her sentence, because of her rank, will be much less likely to be reduced on appeal.
 
gordondaviesmoustache said:
The thing about this crime that makes it so egregious for me is that it was such a gratuitous and malicious attack on something that a wide section of the public held dear, and for no discernible benefit to the people who committed it other than the distress it was going to cause others.

It was committed purely for the kicks of making other people unhappy.

People like that are a cancer on our society and unquestionably make it worse for the rest of us.

My instincts when it comes to sentencing for ostensibly minor offences are generally on the light side, and I frequently think that prison does not provide a solution to criminality, but where people have made a conscious decision to behave in such an utterly selfish and antisocial way, simply because it will upset other people, then I strongly believe they should be removed from wider society for a significant period in order to reflect a level of punishment commensurate with that nastiness, and to present a string deterrent to others not to repeat such a cunty act.

I hope these two cunts get what they deserve. People like this make all our lives more difficult and less joyful and the world would be far better if they didn’t exist.
Click to expand...
images
 
gordondaviesmoustache said:
The trial Judge won’t say this when passing sentence but I also expect she will add a bit on because they both had a trial running utterly preposterous and hopeless defences, which wholly supports your stupidity point.

I’m struggling to imagine any competent criminal barrister advising them to have a trial based on the evidence and so it’s safe to assume, at least on the balance of probabilities, that they both had trials contrary to the advice that their legal representatives gave them.

Quite telling they’ve allocated a High Court Judge to a criminal damage trial too. I think she’ll properly stick the boot in and her sentence, because of her rank, will be much less likely to be reduced on appeal.
Click to expand...
They maybe individually thought they could pin it on the other, and that's why they went with that 'defence'. From the sounds of what has been reported, that seemed to be the only case their respective lawyers made.
 
Coatigan said:
They maybe individually thought they could pin it on the other, and that's why they went with that 'defence'. From the sounds of what has been reported, that seemed to be the only case their respective lawyers made.
Click to expand...
Once they decided to have a trial, then their respective counsel were obliged to run their defences to the best of their ability. It doesn’t make those defences any less preposterous.
 
Coatigan said:
With vandalism, it is rarely about the quantifiable value of the object being vandalised.

It is often about the symbolism. So the punishment having a level of symbolism attached isn't really that outrageous.
Click to expand...
Personally, I would prefer to see the mindless twats who smash up a bus shelter to show how hard they are locked up, but it's not going to happen.
 
gordondaviesmoustache said:
There are a number of defences to criminal damage including belief in consent and damaging the property in order to protect other property, both of which I suspect will apply to the Toby Carvery case. The evidence in that case appears to point to the fact the M&B were acting in good faith, albeit in a way that was unquestionably misguided - so it’s highly unlikely that matter reaches the threshold for a prosecution for criminal damage, although it’s possible some other regulatory offences are made out.

Two cunts driving from one side of the country to another, in order to destroy a tree because it will upset other people is on another planet to the negligence of M&B, both in terms of culpability and harm.
Click to expand...
I do not disagree with that. I just think that enough taxpayers' money has already been wasted without running the risk of an appeal based on an excessive tariff and looking after the idiots just so the general public can feel justified in their outrage. Give them something useful to do.
 
I know lads who have been given 6 year sentences for £8 million (Street value) of drugs and are now out, 2 years later. Regardless of your opinion of drugs, if we are letting people out after 2 years for far more serious offences, we should not be locking these 2 idiots up.
What they did was absolutely pathetic and idiotic. There is no rational excuse for it and they do need an example making of them. But it should be in the way of an extensive community sentence. Make them work every Saturday for 3-years.
You can't have serious criminals walking free as there is no room for them, while these 2 goons are locked up.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Unread Posts

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top