Why would a legal system set out a bunch of laws categorizing age limits for various objects? And laws penalizing people who don't secure their chainsaws in gun cabinets, for that matter.
Will they be allowed hand saws? Hammers? Chefs knives? Dremels?
Besides, 16 is old enough to drive and hold a job in lots of places.
When it comes to employers, City and Guilds NPTC and Lantra chainsaw courses are only offered to people at the Minimum School Leaving Age and above. Since employers are not permitted under HSE regulations to let untrained people operate chainsaws, and since the training is not instant, this effectively bars 16-year-olds from getting chainsaws from their employers.
I will go ahead and assume that in the middle of nowhere and with no cameras in sight, the authorities may have used any available data (i.e. cell tower antennas information, social media tracking your phone's location 24/7, and so on).
Chainsaws like that cannot be handled by a random 16 boy, unless he is the son of Hulk or Thor. Perhaps the kid texted to a friend "we cut the treeeeee" or similar.. I would be VERY surprised to finally see proven that a 16yo did this.
Side note: I have used a chainsaw numerous times in my late teens cutting down branches for a fireplace. I could never manage to cut the tree trunk pieces, even on a chopped down tree. Branches (20cm diameter or less) were easy peasy. But a 60? 70cm diameter? Nah...
Exactly, an average 12-14yo of modest strength could maneuver the chainsaw. The hard part about that work is doing it safely when unexpected things happen.
I have seen chainsaws that are huge, used in industrial logging. This section of comments is daft -- look at the size of the tree .. not "50 cm" trunk at all .. much larger. Secondly a boy of 16 can be anything between a helpless sheep to an olympian. Hard labor is not for all of them.
Yes, and the cut is very neat. Well, the cuts, actually, as we can see on the pictures that cuts were made on each side in order for the tree to fall in a certain way.
The person who did that knew what they were doing and knew how to handle a large chainsaw to fell large trees.
I'll counter that - I'm of fairly slight build, and I have cut down multiple trees in my garden with my chainsaw, easily 50cm diameter. It's not that much of a stretch to imagine cutting down something a little bigger. Chainsaws aren't that heavy.
No. In the UK, it should be illegal for 16 year olds to get their hands on anything more than a dull crayon.