Defendant claims co-accused felled famous sycamore

SYCAMORE Gap accused Daniel Graham told a court it was his former pal Adam Carruthers who cut down the "most famous tree in the world".

- ROB KENNEDY

Graham said Carruthers had a “fascination” with the tree and kept a piece of string with which he had measured its circumference.

He also told jurors at Newcastle Crown Court that Carruthers told him the following day he was responsible for the felling but said he didn’t believe him at the time.

Prosecutors say Graham was with Carruthers when the tree was irreparably damaged, but he said he was asleep in his caravan at the time and had nothing to do with it. Both men deny criminally damaging the tree and Hadrian's Wall, onto which it fell in September 2023.

Graham said he had a phone call with Carruthers that morning. He said: “Adam claimed he had cut down the Sycamore Gap tree. I told him basically he was talking s****. I didn’t believe he had been the one that done it.”

Graham said he then noticed a picture of the wedge on his phone but added: “I still didn’t believe he had done it.”

Asked whether Carruthers had ever mentioned the Sycamore Gap before, Graham said there was an incident in 2021.