Shocking video footage showed the famous 100-year-old Sycamore Gap tree being cut down in a ‘matter of minutes’, a court heard.
The two men accused of the ‘mindless act of vandalism’ filmed their ‘moronic mission’ in a clip lasting two minutes and 41 seconds, which ends with a ‘thud’ as the tree hits the ground, Newcastle crown court heard . The video was captured on the phone of one of the men on trial, Daniel Graham, 39. He had travelled to the site with co-accused Adam Carruthers, 32. They both bragged as they shared the footage, which metadata confirmed was at the exact site of the tree.
It was taken at 00:32:01 on Nov 28, 2023, the jury was told, and captured a cracking sound before it hit the ground. Richard Wright KC prosecuting said: “We say that this is the felling of the Sycamore Gap tree, recorded on Daniel Graham’s telephone.” Mr Wright said the pair ‘were the only people in the world ‘ who knew the tree had been cut down. The jury watched in silence as the noise of the chain saw filled the court room.
The grainy black and white footage showed a man wielding the saw with the famous outline of the tree clear against the night sky. Graham, who had allegedly travelled to the scene with Carruthers from their homes near Carlisle, watched the footage intently from the dock. Carruthers was said to have sent the video of them cutting down the ‘famous’ tree to the mother of his two children. The two accused ‘revelled in their actions’ as they followed the media reports and showed ‘not an ounce of remorse’, the jury heard.
A forensic botanist examined wood found in the Range Rover boot and said there was ‘strong evidence’ to suggest it was the wedge cut out of the side of the Sycamore before they chopped it down. Metadata confirmed it was filmed at the exact spot where the tree stood, Mr Wright said.
“One of them is wielding the chainsaw,” he added. “We can’t say which one cut the tree down, or which one made the recording. We don’t need to. They are both guilty as a matter of law.”
The tree had grown ‘over a century’ in Northumberland; it took a ‘matter of minutes’ to irreparably damage. “Two men are responsible for that mindless vandalism, Graham and Carruthers,” he said.
“They travelled together. They parked, walked to the tree, and then used a chainsaw to deliberately fell it.The technique that they used showed expertise and a determined, deliberate approach.
“First, they marked the intended cut with silver spray paint, before then cutting out a wedge that would dictate the direction in which the tree would fall.
“One of the men then cut across the trunk, causing the Sycamore to fall, hitting the wall. Whilst he did that, the other filmed the act.”
He went on: “Having completed their moronic mission, the pair got back into the Range Rover, and travelled back towards Carlisle.
Mr Wright said a walker photographed the tree “as it had been for over 100 years”, at around 5.20pm on September 27 2023.
That was the last evidence of it still standing, he said. The damage to the tree was reported to police at 9.46am the next day.
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”. Mr Wright said the wedge cut from the tree has never been found.
The prosecution’s case was that it was taken by the defendants as “some sort of trophy or reminder of this senseless act”, the court heard.
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.
The chainsaw used to fell the tree has been hidden and “it simply has not been found,” he said.
Mr Wright added: “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.”
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