Sycamore Gap pair guilty of felling famous tree

Two friends who embarked on a “moronic mission” to fell the Sycamore Gap tree with a chainsaw found guilty of “mindless” criminal damage.

Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, both from Cumbria, convicted of two counts of criminal damage. They are to be sentenced in July.

The two blamed each other for the felling of the Sycamore Gap tree.

Mobile phone footage which prosecutors claim shows the moment the ‘iconic’ Sycamore tree felled was shown to jurors. It happened early hours of Spetember 2023.

The video viewed in the Newcastle trial.

The tree had stood for more than 100 years in a dip on Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland before it felled in a ‘moronic mission’. This done in the early hours of 28 September 2023, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

Jurors told the tree, a much-loved feature in Northumberland, had global significance for its position on the former frontier of the Roman empire.

On the night of 27 September, Carruthers and Graham made a 40-minute drive in the latter’s Range Rover from Cumbria. This to chop the tree down, prosectors allege.

While one used a chainsaw to fell the tree, the other filmed the act of ‘mindless’ vandalism on Graham’s mobile phone, jurors heard.