Two men behind ‘senseless’ felling of Sycamore Gap tree jailed for more than four years

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jul/15/sycamore-gap-tree-felling-men-jailed

50 comments

  1. The trial took 8 days for gods sake. Bizarre story

  2. I would hope they’d also get sentenced to some preservation type manual labor after that as well, they should be paying it back with their bare hands. Ugh!!!!! 😡

  3. Other than just being arseholes do we know why they cut down the tree?

  4. I remember it from the time.

    Was it ever established why they did it?

  8. Thats insane. It’s senseless, wrong, and criminal. But when you consider the things people are doing far less time for…..

  9. Good! It should be much longer. What a couple of creeps!

  10. The sycamore gap tree was ~150 years old. Four years doesn’t feel right. Should have been longer.

  12. Damn guy on the right has real fear in his eyes, that’s kinda stomach turning

  13. Glad they got locked up. There are too many people with a general lack of decency running amock in the world these days.

  14. This feels like the kind of thing that would have gotten zero punishment had it happened in the US. Way to go British justice system.

  17. The social repurcussions they’re gonna face once they’re out of there…lol.

  20. Glad to see that they didn’t get off easy just because it’s “only” a tree. Clearly this tree meant a lot to a lot of people, and cutting it down for no other reason than cruelty is such a scummy act that it deserves real punishment.

  21. There is something seriously wrong with your brain if getting drunk makes you think “You know what would be great? Cutting down a tree! And even better – a famous, beautiful tree in a picturesque spot, loved by millions of people, that cannot be replaced!!”

  22. Chopping a tree down – jail time, raping kids – suspended sentence

  24. Worse than murder. A whole lot of homos(apiens) walking around. This tree was one of a kind. Twenty-five to life seems more appropriate. Stupid ass species.

  26. Too light a sentence. They deserve 10 years at least.

  29. They should have doubled the time. Despise people like this that just pull wings off bugs for fun.

  30. Trump will pardon them.

    EDIT: Yes, I know this didn’t happen in the US. It’s a joke.

  31. Every time I read about this, I actually cry.

    There’s more evil things in the world than felling a beloved tree, but my god this hurts me someplace so deep I don’t really understand it myself.

  34. Good. Fuck these cunts, as our British cousins say

  39. Imagine being in jail:

    “What are you here for?”

    “The trees got me”

  40. Pity the don’t stay jailed until another tree grows to maturity on that spot… deplorable actions for no good reason. SIGH 🙁

  41. If these morons had confessed in light of all the evidence they themselves recorded, they would be doing half as much time. They really deserve to be in prison.

  42. It says they “attacked” the tree with a chainsaw. Seems like an odd way to put it IMO

  43. Blows my mind you get this sentence for cutting down a tree, but only a year or two for abusing people 💀

  44. They should have their fucking hands chopped off. This is the kind of crime than makes my blood boil the most, completely senseless, psychotic me-me-me behaviour. Seriously, if they’d reintroduce public shaming and stretching just for these two I’d be all for it.

    That magnificent tree had stood there for hundreds of years. It was unique. And now, no one will ever see it again.

    Hope they feel shame every day until they die.

  45. UK sentencing makes no sense to me. You have brutal assaults getting a year but cutting down a tree is four? Crazy.

  46. For people who have seen 28 Years Later they walk past this tree more than once. 

    They CGIed it back in cos obviously in that time line these idiots would have been zombies for 30 years so wouldn’t have cut it down.

  48. They’re scum for cutting that tree down but they’re getting more time than I’ve seen rapists get in the UK.

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