A 16-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damage in connection with the felling of the 300-year-old Sycamore Gap tree in the north of England.
Officers arrested the teenager amid an outpouring of sadness over the destruction of the landmark, which has been a feature of the site at Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland for hundreds of years. The boy is in custody and assisting officers with their inquiries, Northumbria police said on Thursday.
Locals and national park authorities said they were “struggling to see the logic” in the destruction of a sycamore which had long become “part of this area’s DNA” and had gone through thousands of changes of seasons.
The tree, believed to have been about 300 years old, was made famous when it appeared in the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, starring Kevin Costner.
Make him replant sycamore trees, then work for the forest druids/nearest national park during summer vacations. His spirit sounds troubled.
Before allowing him into national forests to work in them to pay off a debt I’d probably make sure he has no matches on him first
Let’s make Jeffrey Dahmer work in the kitchen of a boys home in the Philippines. He sounds troubled.
Absolutely agree. Those trees will just end up getting molested and we should avoid it if possible.
Ohh scissor me timbers
….so arson was never considered here ? Your brain went first to sex……about trees. Mmmk.
How does your brain go to arson when you hear Jeffrey Dahmer?
These are trees. Considering how the summers have been, How are you not thinking arson?
You’re wasted, mate.
You aint overly keen on nuance. Are ya?
Apples != oranges
Just let him pay for the purchase and transplanting of a similar quality tree of 300 years.
We moved a 260 year old oak 50 yards to save it when building a new City Halland police station.
It cost $250,000.
So about the same as US student loans? Sounds like a good amount of debt to put him in.
putting people in serious, permanent financial financial trouble with no real chance of escaping is famously effective at treating criminality
Just throw him into the ocean 500 miles offshore.
So this crime deserves the death penalty? Interesting take
You get to a point where maybe it just makes more sense? 8 billion people on this planet. 8 fucking billion. At that scale, truly what is the value of a human life? I’m neither for nor against a death penalty, but I do question at what point do we stop tolerating those who are selfish, entitled, destructive, and violent? When do we stop giving out slaps on the wrist?
We’ve seen similar destructive actions in the past. We all pay the price for one person’s actions.
I do like the idea mentioned above though that this kid should be sentenced to seeding and tending to the growth of a forest of trees.
Maybe also have him pay for the commission of a artistic piece to stand in place of the tree.
You’re too philosophical about this. He fell a tree. Shitty asshole? Yes. Deserving of death? No.
With that logic we could behead people for jaywalking because “hey, there’s 8 billion of us, what’s one less gonna do?”
Is there another tree within 50 yards? If it has to be transported any kind of distance it will be millions.
There is no logic, only destruction.
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With a chainsaw. Definitely pre-meditated.
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Locals are sick of all the tourist traffic in that area. There is a chance he will be a local hero.
Also today some people got arrested for putting a hole large enough to drive a truck through in the Great Wall of China. Today is bad day for ancient walls.
they got arrested days ago
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He’s just a pissed off, angsty, angry teenager. Make him plant 300 trees as community service in the presence of arborists and maybe he’ll learn something good for the rest of his life. Jail won’t help this tree, our world, or him.
Just look at that tree:
That even looks too good to be real. Probably one of the best places for such a tree to grow.How do you just decide, “Yep, let’s cut it down!” here? Did he take drugs? Like, I mean, all of them.
He’s jeffried.
Education. Please educate your kids.
This isn’t education, this is mental illness
Pathologizing each mistake or problem won’t resolve them. You’re searching for excuse, or pathologizing will be used as excuse. We will end with the same situations again and again. Education effectively fights these behaviors without excusing. But, I agree on one pathologization. The society is sick of a lack of education. This is widely due to the socio-economic situation of many of us due to some economic dogma and ideology.
The punishment should be that he becomes Johnny Appleseed and has to spend the rest of his life crossing the country planting trees
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Isn’t this George Washington’s origin story?
No that was just some bullshit tree nobody cared about.
The tree, believed to have been about 300 years old
Well at least now they can count the rings and know for sure
So the various theories I’ve read are:
- kid is retarded.
- kid is acting on behalf of family.
- kid is blamed for family’s act.
- kid was fired from local ranger service and wanted revenge.
- all of above.
Kid wanted to be tiktok famous.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Officers arrested the teenager amid an outpouring of sadness over the destruction of the landmark, which has been a feature of the site at Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland for hundreds of years.
Locals and national park authorities said they were “struggling to see the logic” in the destruction of a sycamore which had long become “part of this area’s DNA” and had gone through thousands of changes of seasons.
The tree, believed to have been about 300 years old, was made famous when it appeared in the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, starring Kevin Costner.
Supt Kevin Waring of Northumbria police said on Thursday: “This is a world-renowned landmark and the events of today have caused significant shock, sadness and anger throughout the local community and beyond.
Tony Gates, the chief executive of the Northumberland national park authority, said staff at the visitor centre had been in tears after arriving in the morning and finding the famous tree felled.
The Twice Brewed Inn, a stone’s throw from the site, has offered a £1,500 bar tab to anyone with information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person who carried out the offence.
The original article contains 822 words, the summary contains 196 words. Saved 76%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
recognised the tree from the thumbnail instantly before reading the details. dickhead took Guy of Gisbournes orders too literally
