“Insane” damage: two convicted for having reduced the historic tree of the Gapo Sycamore | Environmental news

In 2023, the pair cut the tree of almost 200 years on the Hadrian wall in the north of England.

A British court recognized two men guilty of having shot down the famous “Sycamore Gap” tree in what the prosecutors called an “agricultural mission”.

The Court of the Crown of Newcastle found the former friends Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, guilty of criminal damage Friday for the 2023 abandonment of the Sycamore Gap tree.

The historic tree, estimated at the age of almost 200 years, was held at the center of a diving in the landscape of the Hadrian wall in the north of England, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which makes it a popular place for photographers and even marriage proposals.

It was also presented in the 1991 film, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

After about five hours of deliberation, the pair was sentenced to two leaders of criminal damage – in the Sycomore and the wall, which was damaged when the tree fell on it.

“We often hear references made to insane acts of vandalism, but this term has never been so relevant as today,” said Kevin Waring, the Northumbria police after the conviction.

“At no time did the two men explained why they targeted the tree-and there will never be any justifiable,” he added.

During the night of September 27, 2023, the two men went to the site and decided the trunk of the tree in “a few minutes,” said prosecutor Richard Wright.

“After completing their scary mission, the couple returned to the Range Rover and returned to Carlisle” where they lived, he added.

Gale Gilchrist, from the Crown Prosecution Service North, said: “In just under three minutes, Graham and Carruthers put an end to his historical heritage (the tree) in an act of deliberate and insane destruction.

“We hope that our community will be able to gain some comfort by seeing those who are condemned today,” she added.

The two men were placed in pre -trial detention and will be sentenced on July 15.

The national body for conservation of confidence said that slaughtering the tree had “shocked people across the country and abroad, demonstrating the powerful link between people and our natural heritage”.

Efforts are now underway to see if the historic tree can be denounced from its stump or its seeds.