Two men have been found guilty of felling Britain’s beloved Sycamore Gap tree in 2023, in what prosecutors called a “moronic mission” that shocked the nation.
Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, denied cutting down the tree, but both were convicted on Friday on charges of criminal damage.
The tree, a celebrated landmark that stood by Hadrian’s Wall, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in northern England, was found illegally cut down on Sept. 28, 2023.
Prosecutor Richard Wright told Newcastle Crown Court during the trial that the two friends drove to the site from the nearby city of Carlisle and committed the “act of deliberate and mindless criminal damage” together, filming the felling on a cellphone.
The prosecutor said that Mr. Graham kept a wedge of the tree’s trunk as a trophy, and that messages between Mr. Graham and Mr. Carruthers showed them “reveling in” international news media coverage after the tree was found.
The pair, who will be sentenced on July 15, showed no reaction when the jury delivered their unanimous verdicts on Friday morning, after five hours of deliberation.
The tree, which stood for more than 100 years in a picturesque dip between two hills, had long been a way marker and memory maker for British locals and for tourists from around the world. It also appeared in the 1991 film “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves,” starring Kevin Costner.
Mr. Wright said the tree, which had been planted in the late 1800s, had been cut down with a chain saw in minutes on the night of Sept. 27, 2023.
Jurors were shown footage of the tree being felled under the cover of darkness, which was taken on Mr. Graham’s cellphone. The phone also contained photographs of a wedge of wood next to a chain saw in the trunk of his Range Rover.
CCTV and traffic cameras captured images of the vehicle traveling from near his home in Carlisle to a car park near the Sycamore Gap tree.
Mr. Graham, who owns a construction company, had said that he did not use his phone or car on the night of the felling and denied any involvement in the incident.
He blamed Mr. Carruthers and an unidentified accomplice, while Mr. Carruthers — who worked in property maintenance and mechanics — had also said that he was not present at, or involved in, the felling of the tree.
Mr. Wright said that prosecutors could not prove which man had cut down the tree but that evidence indicated that both Mr. Graham and Mr. Carruthers were at the scene.
“Whoever filmed the cutting down was as much responsible for the damage to the wall and the tree as the man wielding the chain saw — they were in it together,” he told jurors as he opened his case on April 29.
Evidence gathered from the two men’s phones showed them sharing news coverage of the felled tree after it was found the following morning, with Mr. Graham sending Mr. Carruthers a WhatsApp voice note saying, “It’s gone viral — it is worldwide.”
In response to a Facebook post calling those responsible “weak” and condemning their “disgusting behavior,” Mr. Carruthers sent Mr. Graham a voice note saying that he would like to see the man who wrote it “launch an operation like we did last night.”
When questioned on the comment during his trial, Mr. Carruthers said the comment had been wrongly interpreted by the prosecution as an admission of guilt and that he meant to write “he” rather than “we.”
He said he discussed the felling with Mr. Graham because he did not understand the scale of news coverage, adding: “It was just a tree.”
Mr. Carruthers told the court that he had been at home with his partner and their newborn daughter on the night in question, while Mr. Graham said he had been asleep and that Mr. Carruthers had taken his phone and Range Rover without his knowledge.
The defendants were each convicted of two counts of criminal damage, which relate to the tree and the part of Hadrian’s Wall — the Roman fortification stretching 70 miles across northern England — that it collapsed onto.
In his closing speech to jurors on Wednesday, Mr. Wright said the felling had caused “sadness and anger” around the world.
He added: “Who would do such a thing? Why would anyone do such a thing? Take something beautiful and destroy it for no good reason.”
In August, rangers spotted a few sprouts near its base of the stump left at Sycamore Gap, an unexpected sign of new life, and seeds and genetic material that scientists gathered from it last year have also started to grow. The National Trust intends to give out 49 saplings next year to spread the tree’s legacy.
Amelia Nierenberg contributed reporting.
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