Two men found guilty of cutting down famous Sycamore Gap tree

Two men have been found guilty of cutting down the famous Sycamore Gap tree that stood for more than 150 years.

Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers were convicted of causing more than £620,000 worth of damage to the tree and more than £1,000 worth of damage to Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland. On 27 September 2023, the pair drove 30 miles through a storm to Northumberland from Cumbria, where they both lived, before felling the tree overnight in a matter of minutes.

The pair each denied two counts of criminal damage to the sycamore and to Hadrian's Wall, which was damaged when the tree fell on it, but were convicted by a jury at Newcastle Crown Court on Friday. The Sycamore Gap tree sat in a dip in the landscape and held a place in pop culture, featuring in the 1991 Kevin Costner film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

It also formed part of people's personal lives, as the scene of wedding proposals, ashes being scattered and countless photographs. Footage of the moment the tree was felled was played during the trial.

In the clip, the sound of a chainsaw can be heard, and the silhouette of a person can be seen, before the trunk eventually tumbled. The footage was shot on Graham's iPhone 13, with the metadata providing the coordinates of the tree.

Part of tree kept as 'trophy' Over the course of the trial, the pair blamed one another, but the prosecution argued they were both responsible for what the court heard was a "mindless act of vandalism". As well as the video footage of the felling, an image of a piece of wood and a chainsaw was found on Graham's phone.

Richard Wright KC, prosecuting, told the court: "This was perhaps a trophy taken from the scene to remind them of their actions, actions that they appear to have been revelling in." Voice notes played in court The jury was also played voice notes the pair had sent one another, commenting on the media coverage the incident was receiving. In one of them, Graham, 39, said to 32-year-old Carruthers: "Someone there has tagged like ITV News, BBC News, Sky News, like News News News.