The two men, who previously denied the deed, blame the fact that they were intoxicated when they set out on a "foolish mission" to fell the tree. The prosecutor has firmly rejected that the deed would have been spontaneous.
The court can be convinced that they were sober, prepared and planned to do what they did, said prosecutor Richard Wright.
The prosecutor wanted the men, who are 39 and 32 years old, to be sentenced to between 18 months and four years in prison.
The felling of the tree, called the Sycamore Gap tree, took place in 2023 and caused dismay. It had then stood for nearly 300 years on the heath in Hexham in Northumberland, near the Roman Hadrian's Wall, which is on UNESCO's World Heritage List. The tree was, among other things, known from the successful film "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" from 1991.
