Friends filmed themselves chopping down Sycamore Gap tree before ‘revelling' in their infamy, jury told

Independent

29-04-2025

Two friends filmed themselves chopping down the famous Sycamore Gap tree before 'revelling in' their infamy when news broke of the irreparable damage to one of the country's most treasured landmarks, a court has heard.
Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers are also accused of keeping a wedge of the trunk as a trophy from the destruction of the tree in a dip on Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland on the night of 27 September, 2023.
The pair are alleged to have driven from Carlisle to the Sycamore Gap to chop down the tree with a chainsaw. Prosecutors say one man cut across the trunk, causing it to fall, while the other recorded the act on a mobile phone.
They then sent messages to each other the next day about the story going 'wild' and 'viral', with prosecutors saying they were 'excited' about what they had done.
Graham, 39, of Milbeck Stables, Carlisle, and Adam Carruthers, 32, of Church Street, Wigton, Cumbria, are each charged with two counts of criminal damage – one to the tree and one to the ancient Roman -built wall which is a Unesco World Heritage Site – on September 28 2023. Both deny the charges.
Opening the trial to jurors at Newcastle Crown Court on Tuesday, prosecutor Richard Wright KC said the Sycamore Gap tree had stood for over a century in the Northumberland National Park, becoming 'a famous site, reproduced countless times in photographs, feature films, and art'.
Mr Wright told jurors: 'By sunrise on Thursday September 28, the tree had been deliberately felled with a chainsaw in an act of deliberate and mindless criminal damage.'
The court heard Graham and Carruthers are accused of travelling together, in Graham's Range Rover, from the Carlisle area where they lived towards Sycamore Gap before parking, walking for around 20 minutes to the tree and cutting it with a chainsaw.
Mr Wright told the jury: 'Though the tree had grown for over a hundred years, the act of irreparably damaging it was the work of a matter of minutes.'
On driving back, Carruthers received a video of his young child from his partner, before replying 'I've got a better video than that', Mr Wright told the jury. Minutes later, the video was sent from Graham's phone to Carruthers' phone, he added.
Jurors heard that a photo and two videos were found on Graham's phone from 2am that day showing a piece of wood next to a chainsaw in the boot of his Range Rover.
'Not content with filming the cutting down of the tree or photographing the aftermath, the prosecution will suggest that the defendants took the wedge of the tree from the scene, perhaps as some sort of trophy,' said Mr Wright.
The court heard that at the time Graham and Carruthers were 'friends who were regularly in each other's company'. Graham lived in Carlisle and had a groundwork company called D M Graham Groundworks while Carruthers told police during an interview he worked in property maintenance and mechanics.
The trial heard data from cell sites and automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras showed Graham's phone and vehicle were together, travelling towards Sycamore Gap on the night that it was felled, while CCTV footage from the Twice Brewed Inn captured vehicle headlights making a left turn towards the Steel Rigg car park, which is used by people visiting Sycamore Gap, at 11.55pm.
A video recovered from Graham's iPhone was shown to the jury, with Mr Wright telling them it was 'extremely dark' but that they would hear 'the unmistakable sound of a chainsaw, and a tree falling'.
The following morning, as the news broke, the defendants shared social media posts about it with each other, with Graham saying to Carruthers 'here we go'.
Jurors were played a voice note from Carruthers to Graham saying: 'Someone there has tagged like ITV News, BBC News, Sky News, like news, news, news. I think it's gonna go wild.'
Another voice note from Graham to Carruthers said: 'Jeffrey (a name Carruthers uses) it's gone viral. It is worldwide. It will be on ITV News tonight.'
Mr Wright told jurors: 'They are loving it, they're revelling in it. This is the reaction of the people that did it. They still think it's funny, or clever, or big.'
Mr Wright said in the following days 'message after message' about the Sycamore Gap story were shared between them or screenshot and saved by Graham, showing they were 'gathering news of their infamy'.
The court heard Graham and Carruthers' 'once close friendship appears to have unravelled', with each of them now apparently blaming the other. Mr Wright said he understood Graham will claim Carruthers and another man are to blame, while Carruthers will say he was not present when the tree was cut down.
Mr Wright said: 'Their once close friendship appears to have unravelled, perhaps as the public revulsion at their behaviour became clear to them.'