'Tip-off' helped solve case of Sycamore Gap felling as force reverted to 'old school' policing
Northumbria Police reverted to "old-school policing techniques" as they found themselves on the hunt for those responsible for the crime - carried out on a stormy night in the middle of rural Northumberland in September 2023.
Detective Inspector Calum Meikle said it was thanks to a piece of information linking Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers to the felling, which also resulted in damage to Hadrian's Wall, that enabled the force to solve the case.
Describing the challenges of such a remote crime, Det Insp Meikle said: "You start at the scene and you essentially work outwards, and that was the situation I found myself in, in a unique situation where we had a very remote scene with very little in the way of CCTV - all the things that you would fall back to look at, that wasn't immediately available."
He continued: "As with any police investigation, we will rely upon information or intelligence being passed.
"It happened that some information was passed to police that identified Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers as being responsible."
The pair were both jailed for four years and three months at Newcastle Crown Court on Tuesday 15 July 2025.
A dark video was later discovered on Graham's phone that, with some forensic magic, captured the moment the much-loved tree was cut with a chainsaw before falling to the ground.
"The fact that we had a video of the Sycamore Gap being felled...I was very pleased that that had been located," Det Insp Meikle continued.
"Very pleased. I can't underplay that at all. It's a fantastic piece of evidence but it still had to be proven."
Graham and Carruthers were charged with causing £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.
They were found guilty in May this year following a trial at Newcastle Crown Court.
The jury heard the pair drove for 40 minutes from the Carlisle area to the Sycamore Gap site, cutting down the tree in the early hours of 28 September 2023.
The court was told the once best friends had fallen out in the aftermath of the felling and had both pinned the blame on each other, with Graham making his own anonymous tip-off to police, naming Carruthers as responsible.
Asked whether without the initial tip-off, naming the pair, the force would have got to the bottom of the case, Det Insp Meikle said: "That's a good question."
He added: "The tenacity of the team, I'd like to think that we would have done but sometimes you create your own luck and you've also got to ensure that what you do gather you look at with a critical eye and you understand what it means.
"So, again, we're only where we are now because of a good team."
The much-photographed tree had stood for about 150 years in the dip, known as Sycamore Gap, alongside Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland and news of its felling was reported across the globe.
Having visited the landmark himself, Det Insp Meikle described the case as "unique" and said the public and media interest had sustained in the nearly two years since its felling.
"The impact that it has had is so far-reaching it still surprises me," he said, adding: "It's very sad that generations to come will never see what we have all seen.
"It's something that will never be possible to recreate so I am mindful to what this means to everybody."
Following the sentencing of Graham, 39, of Millbeck Stables, Carlisle, and Carruthers, 32, of Church Street, Wigton, Cumbria, the officer in charge of the investigation said: "I'm very pleased that I've been able to do my job properly."
Find out the full story in Sycamore Gap: Britain's Lost Landmark on ITV1 at 10.45pm tonight.
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