2 Men Found Guilty of Felling UK’s Sycamore Gap Tree

At 9:46 AM of September 28, 2023, police officers in Northumbria, England, received a call on an unusual crime. A majestic and wide -blade sicomor that had remained for about 150 years on a dip along Hadrian’s wall had been cut.

When the first officer arrived at the scene two hours later, several local people had met at the site and news of destruction was extending.

The images of the body chamber recorded by a local police officer, Peter Borini, showed him by cordoning off the tree talked with blue and white police tape. The gray trunk had cut the leg near the base, and the rest of the trunk and its dense canopy of leaves lay where it fell, extended on a portion of the Hadrian wall, the Roman fortification that extends to 70 miles through northern England.

In the images, Mr. Borini can be listened to gently urge viewers to step back, “so that we can gather as much evidence as we can.”

This was not, as one of the defendants in the case would claim his judgment, “only a tree.” Planted in the nineteenth century, the imposing sicomor was a beloved symbol of the area and had presented a movie “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves in 1991”.

Standing in a natural hole between two hills, it had been the marriage proposals, family days and pilgrimages of tourists. Its distinctive silhouette made it one of the most photographed trees in Great Britain.

In statements to the duration of the jury that the trial of the two men accused him, prosecutor Richard Wright told Newcastle Court that the logging had caused “sadness and anger” worldwide.

“Who would do such a thing?” Hello Ash. “Why would anyone do such a thing? Take something beautiful and destroy it without any good reason.”

On Friday, a jury of 12 people cools his unanimous verdict on the first question, finding Adam Carruthers, 32, and Daniel Graham, 39, guilty of criminal damage.

The second question, why the tree down, may never answer. But the evidence presented that the trial suggested that the motive could simply be banal: the cheap and empty emotion of vandalm and, perhaps, the desire to surprise and create a show.

Both men denied any participation and did not show any explanation to the jury or the police, instead of inventing excuses of why evidence of cell phones, close circuit television and traffic cameras placed them in the scene.

“I would say he is a tree surgeon, but he is interested.”

At the time the sicomorous gap tree was cut, the two were the “best friends”, Mr. Graham recognized the duration of the trial.

It had a construction company on the outskirts of Carlisle, a city about 25 miles from the tree. Mr. Carruthers, who worked on the maintenance of the property and was mechanical, sometimes did work for him.

When the police interviewed Mr. Graham after his trial in October 2023, he said that Mr. Carruthers had done “trees work” in his. “I would say he is a tree surgeon, but he is interested,” he added.

Mr. Graham admitted that he also reduced trees as part of his business. A video recovered from his cell phone showed images of him knocking down a large tree with Mr. Carruthers a month before the sicomor was reduced.

On the afternoon of September 27, 2023, the data of the cell phone site suggested that Mr. Carruthers’s phone was near the tree, in what his coaccusado’s legal team said it was a recognition mission. Mr. Carruthers said he had been taking his partner to Gateshead, a city to more than 70 miles from his house, for a meal but had turned around because a child in the car was restless.

Hours later, at 10:23 pm, he called Mr. Graham, and the two spoke for 1 minute and 18 seconds. It is not known what was said, but at 11:29 pm, the Range Rover of Mr. Graham was caught by a traffic camera that was traveling along a road that leads to the Sycamore gap.

“I have a better video than that.”

An hour later, his cell phone was used to film a 2 -minute clip of 40 seconds. In the original images, nothing can be seen in the dark, but the buzz of a chain saw is followed by a loud noise. An improved version of the same footage shows a figure that works at the base of the tree before it collapses back and far from the camera.

Shortly after Mr. Graham Range Rover was recorded, he was captured by the camera traveling to Carlisle. When Mr. Carruthers’s partner sent him a clip of his five -day daughter, hey, back: “I have a better video than that.”

In the early hours of the morning, Mr. Graham’s phone was used to photograph a chain saw and a large piece of wood in the trunk of his car. Mr. Wright said he believed that the wedge had remained as a “trophy” of the “silly mission” of the couple.

Hey added that while prosecutors could not prove which man had cut the tree, the evidence demonstrated both. Graham and Mr. Carruthers were on the scene.

“Who filmed the cut was as much response for the damage to the wall and the tree as the man who wielded the chain mountain range, were together,” he told the jurors.

The evidence gathered from the defendants’ phones showed them that they shared the coverage of news from the talled tree after it was found the next morning, with Mr. Graham sending Mr. Carruthers a WhatsApp voice note saying: “It has become viral, it is throughout the world.”

In response to a Facebook post that calls those responsible “weak” and condemning their “unpleasant behavior”, Mr. Carruthers sent Mr. Graham a voice note that would like to see the man who wrote him “to launch an operation as we did last night.”

When asked about the duration of his judgment, Mr. Carruthers said the comment had been erroneously interpreted by the Prosecutor’s Office as an admission of guilt and that he intended to write “he” instead of “us.”

Mr. Graham said he did not use his phone or car the night of the felling, and that Mr. Carruthers shouted them without permission.

“I was not part of this plan,” he said in his opinion. “I agree that my Range Rover and my phone were used. Wcege’s photos were tasks in my patio, but I was not the other person involved.”

Mr. Graham called the police to inform his former friend on August 23 or last year. His efforts to make the anonymous call were frustrated by a detective who recognized his voice of previous interviews.

But Mr. Carruthers also denied the participation, the Court tells that he was at home with his partner and his newborn at that time.

Men will be sentenced on July 15, and each one faces up to 10 years in prison.

A sicomorous gap tree could already be blooming again for when they are released. Last August, the Rangers saw some outbreaks near the base of their stump, and the seeds and genetic material collected last year have also begun to grow.

Amelia Nierberg Contributed reports.