Two friends filmed themselves using a chainsaw to chop down the famous Sycamore Gap tree in an act of ‘mindless vandalism’ before ‘revelling in their infamy’ when the crime made global headlines, a court has heard.
Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, are said to have embarked on their ‘moronic mission’ from Carlisle to the Northumberland beauty spot to fell the century-old tree in the dead of night on September 27, 2023.
They even took a piece of it away with them as a ‘trophy’, jurors at Newcastle Crown Court were told.
On their way back to Carlisle in Graham’s Range Rover, Carruthers’s partner sent him a video of their young child, to which he replied, ‘I’ve got a better video than that’, followed by a clip of the tree being brought down, the court heard.
Prosecutor Richard Wright KC said: ‘At the time of that text conversation the only people in the world who knew that the tree had been felled were the men who had cut it down.’
When news of the crime broke the following morning, Carruthers allegedly sent Graham a Facebook post from a man called Kevin Hartness which said: ‘Some weak people that walk this earth disgusting behaviour.’
Two minutes later, Graham is said to have replied to Carruthers with a voice note saying: ‘That Kevin Hartness comment. Weak … f****** weak? Does he realise how heavy shit is?’
The court heard Carruthers then replied with his own voice note saying: ‘I’d like to see Kevin Hartness launch an operation like we did last night … I don’t think he’s got the minerals.’
Jurors were played another voice note allegedly from Carruthers to Graham saying: ‘Someone there has tagged like ITV News, BBC News, Sky News, like news, news, news. I think it’s gonna go wild.’
The court heard a further voice note from Graham to Carruthers said: ‘Jeffrey (a name Carruthers uses) it’s gone viral. It is worldwide. It will be on ITV news tonight.’
Mr Wright told jurors: ‘They are loving it, they’re revelling in it. This is the reaction of the people that did it. They still think it’s funny, or clever, or big.’
Mr Wright said in the following days ‘message after message’ about the Sycamore Gap story were shared between them or screenshotted and saved by Graham, showing they were ‘gathering news of their infamy’.
One image sent by Carruthers to Graham on September 30 showed Facebook comments with a circle around one that said: ‘Judging by the quality of the cut and size of tree I would say whoever it was has knowledge of how to fell large trees.’
Graham, of Carlisle, and Carruthers, of Cumbria, deny two counts each of criminal damage.
They are jointly charged with causing £622,191 of criminal damage to the much-photographed Northumberland tree. They are also charged with causing £1,144 of damage to Hadrian’s Wall, a Unesco World Heritage Site.
Both belong to the National Trust.
Mr Wright said the messages are ‘the clearest confirmation, in their own voices, that Carruthers and Graham were both responsible for the deliberate felling of the tree and the subsequent damage to Hadrian’s Wall’.
The prosecutor told jurors the Sycamore Gap tree had stood for over a century in a dip next to Hadrian’s Wall in the Northumberland National Park, becoming ‘a famous site, reproduced countless times in photographs, feature films, and art’.
He said: ‘By sunrise on Thursday September 28, the tree had been deliberately felled with a chainsaw in an act of deliberate and mindless criminal damage.’
The court heard the two defendants had driven to the Sycamore Gap area of Northumberland in Graham’s Range Rover from the Carlisle area, where they lived, late on September 27, 2023.
Mr Wright said: ‘Though the tree had grown for over 100 years, the act of irreparably damaging it was the work of a matter of minutes.
‘Having completed their moronic mission, the pair got back into the Range Rover, and travelled back towards Carlisle.’
The prosecutor told jurors that photographs and two short videos were taken on Graham’s mobile telephone, which showed a piece of wood next to a chainsaw in the boot of his vehicle.
He said that a forensic botanist has confirmed that there is ‘very strong evidence’ to support the hypothesis that the piece of wood was taken from Sycamore Gap.
Mr Wright said: ‘This was perhaps a trophy taken from the scene to remind them of their actions, actions that they appear to have been revelling in.’
Jurors were also shown a video recovered from Graham’s iPhone on which the sound of a tree being felled could be heard.
Mr Wright said of the clip, lasting two minutes and 41 seconds: ‘What you are going to see is the felling of the Sycamore Gap tree recorded by Daniel Graham’s telephone.’
He said the recording was made in ‘real time’ at 12.32am on September 28, and the metadata showed the co-ordinates were for Sycamore Gap.
‘In simple terms, Graham’s phone was right there at Sycamore Gap as the tree was being cut down, and his phone filmed the tree being cut down,’ Mr Wright said.
‘The prosecution say whoever filmed the cutting down was as much responsible for the damage to the wall and the tree as the man wielding the chainsaw.
‘They were in it together, and they were Carruthers and Graham.’
Mr Wright told jurors that the pair were ‘friends who were regularly in each other’s company’, saying that Graham runs a groundwork company and Carruthers told police he worked in property maintenance and mechanics.
He said a walker photographed the tree still standing, ‘as it had been for over 100 years’, at around 5.20pm on September 27 2023, as a storm approached.
The damage to tree was reported to police at 9.46am the next day, he said.
The prosecutor explained that the method of cutting the tree using a wedge ‘shows that the tree was felled by someone with some knowledge of how to fell a tree’.
The wedge cut from the tree has never been found.
Mr Wright said police found a chainsaw blade and cover at Graham’s property and a chainsaw at Carruthers’ but they cannot say that these were the actual saws used in the felling.
He said the prosecution case is that the chainsaw used to fell the tree has been hidden and ‘it simply has not been found’.
Mr Wright said: ‘The simple point is that these are men with knowledge of how to fell a tree of this size, had access to a wide variety of equipment and the relevant equipment, worked together to carry out tree felling and had a close friendship at the time.’
The court heard Graham and Carruthers’ ‘once close friendship appears to have unravelled’, with each of them now apparently blaming the other.
Mr Wright said: ‘As we understand the defences, Graham denies that he was involved in any way. His car and his phone must have been used without his knowledge to make the journey and record the felling.
‘Carruthers on the other hand denies that he had anything at all to do with the felling of the tree and will maintain that he was not present when it was cut down.’
The trial continues.
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