Two men were found guilty on Friday of having sawed the chainsaw, for no apparent reason, the “Sycamore Gap Tree”, a maple adjoining the Hadrian wall, immortalized in many films and series. In 2023, the slaughter of this famous tree had shocked the United Kingdom.
The two men aged 32 and 39 are accused of having taken the wheel in the middle of the night at the end of September 2023, of having walked 20 minutes to the site before filming themselves down and taking a piece of the trunk as a trophy in their trunk.
>> Reread: Sadness and anger in the United Kingdom after the slaughter of a famous tree
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Judged since last week before the Newcastle court (northeast of England), the accused showed no emotion when her decision was announced. They will be fixed on their sentence on July 15 and risk a “long period of detention,” said the judge.
This majestic sycamore maple (Acer pseudoplatanus) has been known all over the world since its appearance in “Robin des Bois: Prince des thieves” with Kevin Costner in 1991. He had been held for almost two centuries isolated between two hills in a spectacular landscape.
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Damage caused to this tree are estimated at more than 622,000 pounds (more than 686,000 francs), and those suffered by the neighboring Hadrian wall, a Roman site classified by UNESCO, at 1144 pounds (1262 francs).
The old friends, who deny the facts and accuse each other, did not give an explanation.
-Pre -trial detention
The 39 -year -old man has been in pre -trial detention since December “for his own security” according to the judge, and will remain so until the sentence. A similar decision was made on Friday for the second accused, whose partner notably said that he was followed to his home.
The two men had also hid their faces behind hoods arriving in court during a previous hearing a year ago.
According to the prosecutor Richard Wright, they were after their “deleted” gesture of the media coverage aroused and had sent messages to congratulate themselves in a story that has become “viral”.
Emotion and anger
This slaughter caused emotion and anger in the United Kingdom, as the tree was loved by the general public. A place of marriage and family memories, extremely photogenic, the maple had been elected English tree of the year in 2016.
Since the slaughter of the tree in 2023, the National Trust, the organization managing many places of the British heritage, whose place where the maple was, indicated that new shoots had appeared on the strain of the tree.
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The National Trust has also recovered seeds And obtained 49 young plants, objects of all care, which will eventually be given to individuals and organizations throughout the United Kingdom, to be planted in particular in hospitals, gardens and schools.
AFP/JUMA
