Sycamore Gap: Pair jailed for four years and three months over felling of famous Northumberland tree
Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, were sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court on Tuesday (15 July) having previously been found guilty of criminal damage in relation to the felling and subsequent damage to Hadrian's Wall.
They were handed a sentence of four years and three months for criminal damage to the tree and a concurrent six months in custody for damage to Hadrian's Wall.
During the trial at Newcastle Crown Court in April, jurors heard how Graham, of Millbeck Stables, Carlisle, and Carruthers, of Church Street, Wigton, drove for 40 miles from the Carlisle area to the Sycamore Gap site on 28 September 2023.
The court was shown a video, found on Graham's phone, which appeared to show the felling of the sycamore in the pitch black, before it fell backwards onto Hadrian's Wall.
It caused £622,191 of criminal damage to the tree as well as causing £1,144 of damage to Hadrian's Wall, a Unesco World Heritage Site. Both are owned by the National Trust.
The prosecution also claimed the men took a wedge from the tree as a trophy. It, and the chainsaw believed to have been used to cut the tree down, have never been found.
Following the sentencing, a close relative of Graham said she wanted "nothing to do with him".
She told ITV Tyne Tees: "Nature and birds, that is everything to me. It was everything to his father and his grandfather. He's nuts. To me, he's nothing."
Meanwhile, Carruthers, whose girlfriend is standing by him, was defended by a close family friend who has know him since childhood.
They said: "All we want at this point is Adam home. If he's as guilty as they say he is, all he did was cut down a tree.
"If you can't see why that's less important than people's lives then you're missing something."
Find out the full story in Sycamore Gap: Britain's Lost Landmark on ITV1 at 10.45pm tonight.
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