Two men who cut down Sycamore Gap tree jailed for nearly 10 years

Two former friends who cut down the Sycamore Gap tree in an act of ‘mindless thuggery’ have been jailed.

Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, were convicted of criminal damage to the ‘totemic’ tree, which had stood for more than 100 years in a fold in the landscape.

Both men were also convicted of criminal damage to Hadrian’s Wall, caused when the tree fell on the ancient monument.

They were each jailed for a total of four years and nine months.

Defending Carruthers, Andrew Gurney told Newcastle Crown Court a motive has finally been offered for the crime, saying: ‘He does wish to cleanse his conscience of what he has done.

‘People want to know “Why? Why did you conduct this mindless act?”

‘Unfortunately, it is no more than drunken stupidity.

‘He felled that tree and it is something he will regret for the rest of his life. There’s no better explanation than that.’

The court heard Carruthers told a probation worker he had ‘drunk a bottle of whisky after a hard day’ but insisted he has no memory of the felling, saying ‘everything is a blur’.

For his part, Graham blamed his co-accused, branding him a ‘fantasist’ and insisting he ‘just went along with’ Carruthers not expecting him to actually go through with it, saying he was ‘shocked’ by the crime.

But sentencing the pair at Newcastle Crown Court, judge Mrs Justice Lambert said she was sure ‘bravado’ and ‘thrill-seeking’ were more likely motivations.

‘I can now be sure you, Adam Carruthers, were the person who felled the tree and you, Daniel Graham, assisted and encouraged him by driving there and back and not least by filming it on your phone,’ she said.

The judge said that ‘although there may be grains of truth [to the claims], I do not accept they are wholly honest or the whole story,’ adding that ‘a major factor was sheer bravado’ and gaining ‘some sort of thrill’.

Richard Wright KC, prosecuting, told jurors during their trial the pair had engaged in a ‘moronic mission’ to cut down the landmark, travelling for more than 40 minutes from their homes in Cumbria, then carrying their equipment across pitch black moorland during a storm back in September 2023.

One of them filmed the act, although precisely who did what, and why, has never been explained, with the prosecution case claiming that each encouraged the other.

They took a wedge from the tree as a trophy that has never been recovered and revelled in the media coverage, as news of the vandalism caused national and international headlines.

The tree was a symbol of Northumberland, was the site of countless family visits and featured in the Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman film, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

Its destruction, filmed on a mobile phone, took less than three minutes.

Andrew Poad, a National Trust manager, gave a victim impact statement which was read out in court today.

He said: ‘This iconic tree can never be replaced.

‘Whilst the National Trust has cared for it on behalf of the nation, it belonged to the people.

‘It was totemic.’

Mr Poad added: ‘An overwhelming sense of loss and confusion was felt across the world.

‘The question was why anyone would do this to such a beautiful tree in such a special place.

‘It was beyond comprehension.’

The defendants were once close, working and socialising together, but have fallen out since their arrests and each has come to blame the other.

Graham’s Range Rover was picked up on automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras between Carlisle and Sycamore Gap at night on September 27, 2023, and returning early the next morning. His mobile was traced to phone masts making the same journey.

When police arrested the pair and searched Graham’s phone, they found a two-minute and 41-second video, which showed the sycamore being cut down at 12.30am on September 28, and had been sent to Carruthers.

Messages and voice notes between Graham and Carruthers the next day showed them talking about the story going ‘wild’ and ‘viral’.

At trial, Graham claimed Carruthers had a fascination with the sycamore, saying he had described it as ‘the most famous tree in the world’ and spoken of wanting to cut it down, even keeping a piece of string in his workshop that he had used to measure its circumference.

Carruthers denied this and told the court he could not understand the outcry over the story, saying it was ‘just a tree’.

Chris Knox, defending Graham, told the court: ‘He is a troubled man who has had very real difficulties in his life, which have not all been of his own making.’

Mr Knox said Graham, a groundworker, had set up a ‘proper business which paid tax and did all the appropriate things’.

His home, and the business he operated from it, were attacked after he was remanded in custody, including having windows broken, the barrister said.

Graham had also received hate mail which showed ‘very unpleasant, malign intent towards him’, Mr Knox said.

For Carruthers, Andrew Gurney said: ‘Mr Carruthers is someone who is going to have to bear the burden of what he has done for the rest of his life.

‘He is a man of previous good character. That is gone. He will forever be linked to this act. He will have to carry this as some form of personal penance.’

Mr Gurney said Adam Carruthers played an active role in bringing up his children, aged six and two.

Being in prison since May had been ‘torture’ for him as he had never been away from his children for so long, Mr Gurney said.

‘It is his stupid actions that have caused him to be taken away from his family and his children.’

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