Pair guilty of cutting down Sycamore Gap tree
Two men have been found guilty of the “mindless destruction” of the world famous Sycamore Gap tree, the felling of which sparked international outrage.
The tree had grown in a dip on Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland for more than 100 years before it was cut down in a “moronic mission” in the early hours of 28 September 2023, Newcastle Crown Court heard.
Daniel Michael Graham, 39, from Carlisle, and Adam Carruthers, 32, from Wigton in Cumbria, were each convicted of two counts of criminal damage.
Prosecutors said the pair carried out the “mindless thuggery” as a “bit of a laugh” but, when they realised the public’s fury, they were too cowardly to confess.
Jurors took about five hours to reach their verdicts with both men remanded into custody for their “own protection” ahead of sentencing on 15 July.
The value of the tree had previously been estimated at more than £620,000 but that figure was now in dispute – although that would not affect the men’s sentence, which could be up to 10 years in prison, the court heard.
The tree had been planted in the late 1800s to be a “feature in the landscape”, fulfilling that ambition and more by becoming a much-loved visitor destination and landmark at the former frontier of the Roman empire.
It found global fame after featuring in a scene of the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, starring Kevin Costner, and was popular with photographers and artists.
Graham and Carruthers, who had been best friends before falling out “spectacularly” in the aftermath, used the cover of darkness to travel from Cumbria and attack the tree with a chainsaw, jurors heard.
While one cut the tree down, taking less than three minutes to destroy what had taken more than a century to grow, the other filmed it on Graham’s phone, with the pair then carrying away a wedge of the trunk as a “trophy”.
Prosecutor Richard Wright KC said it had been a “moronic mission” and the men had thought it was “just a tree”, while all right-thinking people had been angered and saddened by the “arboreal equivalent of mindless thuggery”.
He said the pair initially revelled in the public’s outrage but, when they realised they would become public enemy number one, were too scared to admit their actions.
Graham, whose phone and car were tracked going to and from the site, and on whose mobile the felling video had been recorded, had sought to blame Carruthers.
Carruthers, who jurors were told had probably made a “recce” of the remote site earlier in the day, claimed he had “no clue” who did it.
This story originally features on BBC