U.K. men sentenced to more than 4 years in prison for cutting down iconic Sycamore Gap Tree
Justice Christina Lambert sentenced both Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers to four years and three months in prison during a hearing at the Newcastle Crown Court on Tuesday.
The tree stood for nearly 200 years in a picturesque valley in northern England, right next to the remnants of Hadrian's Wall, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The stone wall was constructed by Britain's Roman occupiers almost 2,000 years ago as a defensive structure, and the portion of the wall where the tree stood featured in a scene of the 1991 Hollywood blockbuster "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves," with Kevin Costner, bringing the bucolic spot and the grand tree some degree of international fame.
A jury at the same court had convicted the former friends on two counts each of criminal damage for their 2023 nighttime felling of the tree, for damaging both the sycamore maple tree and the Roman wall. They had faced a possible maximum sentence of 10 years in jail.
Reacting to the guilty verdict in May, the National Trust conservation organization said the "needless felling" of the tree had "shocked people around the country and overseas."
"It was felt particularly deeply here in the northeast of England where the tree was an emblem of the region and the backdrop to many personal memories," said a spokesperson.
Prosecutor Richard Wright told the court that the pair drove to the site, near the town of Hexham, in Graham's Range Rover and felled the tree on the night of September 27, 2023, slicing through the trunk with a chainsaw in "a matter of minutes."
"Having completed their moronic mission, the pair got back into the Range Rover and traveled back towards Carlisle" where they lived, he said.
The pair were jointly charged with causing £622,191 ($832,821) of criminal damage to the tree and £1,144 of damage to Hadrian's Wall, which once stretched across the country from northwest to northeast England.
The sycamore was a symbol of northeast England and a key attraction photographed by millions of visitors over the years, winning the Woodland Trust's Tree of the Year in 2016. Efforts are underway to see if it can be regrown from its stump or seeds.
The National Trust, which owns the wall and the tree, said it has grown 49 saplings from the sycamore's seeds, which will be planted this winter at sites across the U.K.
A section of the trunk that's over six feet long now forms the centerpiece of an art installation on permanent display at a visitor center near to where the Sycamore Gap Tree stood. People can see and touch part of the trunk, and "can once again gather, sit, and reflect," according to the visitor center.
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