'I wanted to see justice done... but we haven't got it'

A TYNESIDE great-grandmother who travelled from Wolverhampton to see the men convicted of felling the Sycamore Gap tree sentenced has said that justice was not done.

- TOM WILKINSON and DANIEL HALL

Sheila Hillman and husband John took the train from the Midlands to see Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers learn their punishment.

Staying at a nearby hotel, the couple said the bill would come to £500, but Sheila felt she needed to be in court to see the judicial process completed.

The 78-year-old, who grew up on Tyneside, had a front row seat in the public gallery at Newcastle Crown Court for the daylong hearing.

She was in hospital undergoing a serious operation when Graham, 39, and Carruthers, 32, were convicted in May.

She told her surgeon then that she intended to be well enough to see them sentenced.

After Cumbrian pair Graham and Carruthers were each sentenced to four years and three months in prison, the retired office manager said outside court: “Seeing the tree broke my heart. I was incensed.

"Then they got four years and three months and it's likely they will serve two and a half.