Two men found guilty of felling Sycamore Gap tree

Two former friends have been found guilty of chopping down the Sycamore Gap tree in an act of “deliberate and mindless criminal damage”.

Ground worker Daniel Graham, 39, and mechanic Adam Carruthers, 32, drove overnight from Carlisle to the Northumberland landmark during Storm Agnes in September 2023, and cut down the tree with a chainsaw.

While prosecutors at Newcastle Crown Court could not be sure which of the pair cut down the tree the jury was told that both men were jointly responsible for the “mindless vandalism”.

A video was also taken of the destruction by one of the two men, the court was told, and a wedge of the tree taken away as a “trophy”. The pair’s once close friendship fell apart as the police investigation closed in on them.

At Newcastle Crown Court, a jury found Graham, from Carlisle, and Carruthers, from Wigton, in Cumbria, guilty of two counts of criminal damage relating to the tree and the Roman Wall, which the tree struck when it came down.

There was no visible reaction from either in the dock as the jury returned after just over five hours to convict them of causing £622,191 of criminal damage to the tree and £1,144 of damage to the wall.

The Sycamore Gap tree had stood for over a century in a dip next to Hadrian’s Wall in the Northumberland National Park, becoming a sacred place in the region for marriage proposals, scattering of ashes and birthdays.

Its destruction was met with wide public outcry, and there was much attention on the opening day of the trial, as the prosecutor Richard Wright KC accused the friends of completing the “moronic mission”.

After chopping it down, the pair appeared to gloat over their achievement. “Here we go,” Graham said to Carruthers as the two shared social media posts on the news breaking in the morning.

“The discussions between the pair are a clear indication that they were the men that cut down the tree,” said Mr Wright.

But the pair’s friendship unravelled as it soon became clear of the impact of the felling.

Giving evidence, Graham told jurors Carruthers had confessed to the crime the day after the tree came down, and admitted making an anonymous 101 call to police to report his friend.

He claimed anyone could have used his phone and Range Rover, with the video of the tree coming down on his device and the vehicle tracked to Sycamore Gap on the night of the felling.

Carruthers, despite being blamed by his friend, always claimed he knew nothing about who chopped the tree down.

This is a breaking story - more to follow...