Police in north of England say teenager arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damage

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.

  • 520@kbin.social
    15·
    1 year ago

    This kid will not be getting a mere slap, no matter what police do. This kid will be shunned almost completely from the local community.

      • 520@kbin.social
        81·
        1 year ago

        His idiocy made national news. Where’s he going to go to avoid it? Gibraltar?

        The kid is stuck on that island where everyone knows his name for the wrong reasons. It’s not like the rest of Europe where freedom of travel is a thing. Not to mention a Brit isn’t going to last long in a state European school.

          • 520@kbin.social
            2·
            1 year ago

            That and a lack of language tuition. European countries overwhelmingly do their schooling in their native languages, something English schools aren’t good at teaching.