Sycamore Gap accused did it 'for a laugh', court told

Two friends accused of cutting down the Sycamore Gap tree thought it would be a bit of a laugh” and failed to foresee the public outrage, a jury heard yesterday.

- ALEX ROSS

Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers then both refused to admit chopping down the tree in fear of becoming “public enemy number one”, prosecutor Andrew Wright KC told Newcastle Crown Court on the sixth day of the trial. The tree had been located in a sloping dip of Hadrian's Wall for around 150 years, before it was felled in the early hours of 28 September 2023.

Graham, 39, from Carlisle, and Carruthers, 32, of Wigton in Cumbria, both deny two counts of criminal damage to the tree and the Roman Wall, which the tree fell struck when coming down. They are accused of driving overnight from Cumbria to the landmark in Northumberland, where one of them cut the tree with a chainsaw while the other filmed the act on Graham's mobile phone.