Two British men have been sentenced to over four years in prison for cutting down one of England’s most iconic trees, the Sycamore Gap Tree. The pair, Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers, were found guilty in May of a “deliberate and mindless” act that damaged the tree and nearby Hadrian’s Wall.
The 200-year-old sycamore tree stood in a picturesque valley near Hadrian’s Wall, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Its destruction brought significant damage, including £622,191 ($832,821) to the tree itself and £1,144 to the wall.
Graham and Carruthers were jointly charged with causing this damage and had faced up to 10 years in jail. However, Justice Christina Lambert sentenced them to four years and three months each due to their “moronic mission” as prosecutor Richard Wright described it.
The tree was a beloved symbol of northeast England, attracting millions of visitors and winning the Woodland Trust’s Tree of the Year award in 2016. Efforts are underway to regrow the tree from its stump or seeds, with 49 saplings already grown by the National Trust. A section of the trunk is now part of an art installation on permanent display at a nearby visitor center.
Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sycamore-gap-tree-felling-uk-sentencing-robin-hood-tree