LONDON - Two men guilty of the "deliberate and mindless" felling of one of the UK's most iconic trees, sparking national outrage, will find out on Tuesday if they are to be jailed.
A jury at Newcastle Crown Court in May found former friends Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers guilty of criminal damage for the 2023 felling of the tree at Sycamore Gap.
It had stood for nearly 200 years next to Hadrian's Wall, a UNESCO World Heritage site in northern England. The tree was so striking it featured in the 1991 Hollywood film "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves".
They were convicted on two counts of criminal damage: to the sycamore and to the Roman wall, which was damaged when the tree fell on it.
Reacting to the guilty verdict, the National Trust conservation body said the "needless felling" of the tree had "shocked people around the country and overseas".
"It was felt particularly deeply here in the north east of England where the tree was an emblem of the region and the backdrop to many personal memories," said a spokesperson.
The pair drove to the site near 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", said prosecutor Richard Wright.
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, an ancient Roman fortification stretching 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 under way to see if it can be regrown from its stump or seeds.