Pair filmed 'mindless' felling of Sycamore Gap tree, court is told

Two men filmed themselves using a chainsaw to fell the famous Sycamore Gap tree on Hadrian's Wall in an act of "mindless criminal damage", a court heard yesterday.

- Mark Brown

Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, embarked on a "moronic mission" to cut down in minutes a tree that had stood for more than 100 years, the prosecutor Richard Wright KC told Newcastle crown court.

The two men from Cumbria have denied two charges of criminally damaging the tree and Hadrian's Wall, where it stood.

Wright said the tree had been in a dip in the wall in Northumberland national park. It had become "a famous site, reproduced countless times in photographs, feature films and art", he added.

Graham and Carruthers travelled in Graham's Range Rover from Cumbria in the late hours of 27 September 2023, the court heard.

"By sunrise on Thursday September 28, the tree had been deliberately felled with a chainsaw in an act of deliberate and mindless criminal damage," Wright said. "It fell on to a section of Hadrian's Wall, causing irreparable damage to the tree itself and further damage to the wall."

Wright said the people responsible were Graham and Carruthers, who, in the technique they used, showed "expertise and a determined, deliberate approach" to the felling.