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Two friends accused of cutting down the Sycamore Gap tree thought it would be “a bit of a laugh” and failed to foresee the public outrage, a jury heard on Wednesday.
Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers then both refused to admit chopping down the tree in fear of becoming “public enemy number one”, prosecutor Andrew Wright KC told Newcastle Crown Court on the sixth day of the trial.
The famous tree had been located in a sloping dip of Hadrian’s Wall for around 150 years, before it was felled in the early hours of 28 September 2023.
Graham, 39, from Carlisle, and Carruthers, 32, of Wigton in Cumbria, both deny two counts of criminal damage to the sycamore and the Roman Wall, which the tree fell struck when coming down.
They are accused of driving overnight from Cumbria to the landmark in Northumberland, where one of them cut the tree with a chainsaw while the other filmed the act on Graham’s mobile phone.
In his closing speech to jurors, prosecutor Richard Wright KC explained how the tree felling was met with outrage.
“From Felixstowe to Falkirk, from Bishop Auckland to Barnstable, up and down the country and across the world, the reaction of all right thinking people to the senseless felling of the Sycamore Gap tree has been one of sadness and anger,” he said.
“Who would do such a thing? Why would anyone do such a thing? Take something beautiful and destroy it for no good reason.
“Go to the trouble of causing irreparable and senseless damage to an adornment to the rural landscape of Northumberland, and in the process damage the ancient structure of Hadrian’s wall.”
He added: “For all that they [Graham and Carruthers] must have thought that this was going to be a bit of a laugh, they woke up the morning after and soon realised – as the news media rolled in, as the outrage of the public became clear… it must have dawned on them that they couldn’t see anyone else smiling in there.
“And that far from being the big men they thought they were, everyone else thought that they were rather pathetic. Owning up to this arboreal equivalent of mindless thuggery would make them public enemy number one. And neither of them has got the courage to do that.”
Jurors heard earlier in the trial that Graham’s phone and Range Rover had been traced to the Sycamore Gap area. Graham claimed he was at home at the time of the offence, and his co-accused took both.
On Graham’s phone, the jury heard, was a video which the prosecution suggested showed the Sycamore Gap tree coming down. Also on the device was a picture prosecutors say showed a wedge of wood taken as “trophy” in Graham’s car boot.
Carruthers also denies any involvement. He claimed to have been at home with his partner and newborn baby on the night of the felling.
Earlier on Wednesday, Mrs Justice Lambert told the jury to consider the case “calmly and dispassionately”. Setting out her legal directions, she said it was jurors’ duty to focus solely on the evidence put forward in the trial.
The trial continues.
English (US) ·