Sycamore Gap vandal admits tree felling was act of ‘drunken stupidity’ but pair insist they didn’t mean to cut it down: Live updates

The court has now adjourned for lunch.

So let’s recap what was said earlier today during the sentencing hearing for Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers who were convicted of illegally felling the Sycamore Gap tree in Northumberland:

• Former friends Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers have insisted they did not mean to chop down the tree when they embarked on what they described as a ‘mission’ in September 2023
• Prosecutors told the court the men denied intending for the tree to be cut down, either saying they were intoxicated or that they ‘didn’t believe it would happen until it did’
• The lawyer representing Carruthers said ‘drunken stupidity’ was the cause of the felling while Graham has refuted any suggestion he was ‘intoxicated’
• Prosecutor Richard Wright KC said there was a ‘high degree of planning and premeditation’ in the felling and that both men were ‘sober’
• The National Trust said the cost of removing the tree was £30,000, with one manager describing the loss as ‘beyond comprehension’
• Carruthers, a father-of-two, has described his incarceration as akin to ‘torture’ as he had never been away from his children for so long
• While Graham has had his home and business attacked while in custody and will have to rebuild his life once he is released

The court has now broken for lunch and will return at 2:15pm.

Mr Wright said pre-sentence reports for both men show they now appear to have admitted their role in felling the tree, ‘in the sense they both admit they went on the mission’.

He told the court they denied intending for the tree to be cut down, either saying they were intoxicated or that they ‘didn’t believe it would happen until it did’.

The prosecution rejects these late admissions… The court can be sure they were sober and prepared to do what they did.

He said one of the aggravating factors was the site’s heritage status and the defendants’ attempts to avoid detection.

Mr Wright said they knew other people, including a young boy, had been arrested in connection with the offence and were ‘closely following (the investigation) when they knew they were responsible’.

Andrew Gurney, the barrister representing Carruthers, told the court that ‘drunken stupidity’ is behind the felling of the Sycamore Gap.

Mr Gurney said ‘people want to know why’ the tree was chopped down. He told the court:

Why did he conduct this mindless act? Unfortunately it is no more than drunken stupidity that he felled that tree.

Something that he will regret for the rest of his life. There is no better explanation than that.

Mr Knox has disputed the suggestion that Graham was drunk during the ‘mission.’

‘I don’t know where the reference to being intoxicated has come from,’ he said.

‘There is no suggestion in relation to him [Graham]… of intoxication.’

The court has heard that Graham admitted his involvement in the felling to a probation officer.

Christopher Knox, Graham’s barrister, also told Newcastle Crown Court that his client was remanded into custody ‘for his own safety’ after making ‘a serious attempt on his life.’

This led to him spending several weeks in hospital.

‘He is a troubled man who has had very real difficulties in his life,’ he said.

Mr Wright said the pair have now acknowledged they went on the ‘mission’ together, but deny they intended to cut down the tree.

The pair have said they were ‘intoxicated’ but Mr Wright said the ‘court can be sure they were sober, prepared and planned to do what they did.’

Mr Wright has told the court Daniel Graham had two previous convictions for battery in 2007 and 2016 and two public order offences in 2021 and 2022.

He said the offences were ‘all relationship-based’ and none resulted in a prison offence.

Graham also had a caution for theft when he cut up logs using a chainsaw and made off with them.

He has been in custody since he was remanded on December 21 last year.

Carruthers has no previous convictions, arrests, reprimands or warnings.

He has been held since the pair were convicted on May 9

The value of the damage caused to the Sycamore Gap was was initially assessed as £622,191, while damage to Hadrian’s Wall was calculated to be £1,144.

But prosecutor Richard Wright says the value of the tree has been disputed, and that the lowest figure the Crown would agree with was £458,000.

Mrs Justice Lambert said she had seen a number of expert valuations and the main point, when it came to sentencing, was that it was worth more than £5,000.

The court has heard a victim impact statement from the National Trust which described the felling as ‘beyond comprehension.’

Andrew Poad, a general manager at the National Trust, said:

This iconic tree can never be replaced. While the National Trust has cared for it on behalf of the nation, it belongs to the people.

It was a totemic symbol, a destination for visits, a place to make memories, take photographs in all seasons, a place of sanctuary…

When it became clear this was malicious and deliberate, the question was: why There was an overwhelming sense of loss and confusion felt across the world.

Mr Poad said that, following the tree’s felling, there was an increase of visitors to the site, ‘almost as a pilgrimage to the loss of the tree’.

Two former best friends are facing up to 10 years in prison for felling the iconic Sycamore Gap tree in Northumberland.

Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, have appeared in the dock at Newcastle Crown Court to be sentenced for two counts of criminal damage, including damage to Hadrian’s Wall caused when the tree fell on it.

Separated by a dock officer, Graham, wearing a white shirt, and Carruthers, in a grey t-shirt, stared straight ahead and did not acknowledge each other as they were led up from the cells.

The pair were convicted in May following a trial.

The court has returned and the sentencing is about to resume

Judge Mrs Justice Lambert has rejected the application for the men to wear handcuffs in the dock.

Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers have now entered the dock.

The sentencing has been further delayed to allow legal discussions to take place.

The court has been cleared for the time being as talks take place in private chambers, meaning they cannot be reported.

So far the hearing has heard an application has been made by the court’s security staff for both defendants to wear handcuffs in the dock.

The outcome of the application is yet to be determined.

We will continue to bring you live updates from the court when we can.

As we await for more updates from Newcastle Crown Court, let’s take a look at a story we published yesterday on a man falsely accused of chopping down the Sycamore Gap

A former lumberjack falsely accused of felling the Sycamore Gap tree had to wear a Rod Stewart wig to avoid abuse after he was targeted by trolls.

Walter Renwick was arrested the day after the famous tree, which stood in a valley along Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland National Park for around 150 years, was illegally chopped down in September 2023.

Officers searched the ex lumberjack’s home and removed a chainsaw from his property after he was accused by online sleuths.

Following his arrest, he became scared to leave the house as people would accuse him of felling the tree when they saw him in public.

‘It was heartbreaking. There were police everywhere, drones flying around the valley, divers in the lake, they were 100 per cent certain I’d done it,’ he told the BBC.

The judge Mrs Justice Lambert has entered the court room following a short delay with the sentencing about to get underway.

In the court, a sign has been placed on the door saying the public gallery is full with the press benches also packed.

When police arrested the pair and searched Daniel Graham’s phone, they found a two-minute and 41-second video, which showed the sycamore being cut down at 12.30am on September 28, and had been sent to Carruthers.

Messages and voice notes between Graham and Carruthers the next day showed them talking about the story going ‘wild’ and ‘viral’.

Listen to the voice notes below:

Mobile phone footage of the moment the famous Sycamore Gap tree was cut down and fell on to Hadrian’s Wall was played to jurors during the men’s trial earlier this year.

Newcastle Crown Court was shown a two-minute and 41-second video, taken from Graham’s iPhone which was searched by police.

Police analyst Amy Sutherland said the video was in the download section of Graham’s phone, which was taken from his jacket pocket.

She said it was “in darkness” but that “sounds of a chainsaw” could be heard.

Ms Sutherland told the court she had been able to get the co-ordinates of where it was filmed from the metadata, and that they were for Sycamore Gap.

It appeared to be a daunting task to catch the vandals responsible for the destruction of a much-loved tree in a remote corner of Northumberland, away from witnesses and in the dead of night.

Amid a national fury at the senseless act, Northumbria Police set to work to track down those responsible for a seemingly motiveless crime which had inflamed social media and led the TV news.

Police were reluctant to explain how they came to identify the two, apart from saying it followed ‘intelligence-led policing’.

Number plate recognition cameras had identified that Graham’s Range Rover had been driven to a nearby car park at the relevant time, Newcastle Crown Court previously heard.

The movement of Graham’s phone was tracked using network masts and indicated that it had travelled east from the Carlisle area, before being switched off.

And when police recovered his mobile from his jacket pocket, they found a video of the tree being felled on a pitch black night.

That video was enhanced by a digital specialist to make the picture clearer and it proved to be a piece of telling evidence.

Watch footage of police arriving at the scene of the felling in September 2023:

Former friends Daniel Graham (left), 39, and Adam Carruthers (right), 32, were convicted of criminal damage to the much-loved tree, which had stood for more than 100 years in a fold in the landscape.

They were also convicted of criminal damage to Hadrian’s Wall, caused when the sycamore fell on the ancient monument.

Mrs Justice Lambert will sentence the pair, who have been held in custody following their trial in May, at Newcastle Crown Court.

The maximum sentence for criminal damage is 10 years and aggravating factors include whether it was done to a heritage or cultural asset and evidence of wider impact on the community.

When she remanded the pair, Mrs Justice Lambert said they could face ‘a lengthy period in custody’.

When Daniel Graham (left) and Adam Carruthers (right) were arrested and charged, mystery surrounded the men responsible of cutting down the Sycamore Gap — described by one of them as ‘the world’s most famous tree’.

At the time the sycamore was felled, they were ‘best of pals’ who lived 12 miles apart in Cumbria, who saw each other up to four times a week and spoke on the phone every day.

But a court heard how the pair’s once close friendship had unravelled, with Graham blaming Carruthers for cutting down the famous tree and ruining his business.

Here’s a closer look at the two men being sentenced this morning:

Newcastle Crown Court heard Graham, 39, lived and worked at Milbeck Stables, Carlisle, where he had a groundwork company called D M Graham Groundworks which saw him cut down trees using three or four chainsaws he owned.

He said during his evidence that he had mental health issues and that his father had killed himself – a tragedy that led to his close friendship with Carruthers. The court heard Carruthers had been repairing Graham’s father’s Land Rover when he died, and Carruthers did Graham a “good turn” by getting it ready in time for the funeral.

At the time the tree was cut down in September 2023, the pair had been “best of pals” for about three years, according to Graham, and split the cash they made from felling trees 50/50.

But he told the trial he “turned on” Carruthers when his business started to suffer because of his name being linked to Sycamore Gap. The court heard a 10-minute anonymous phone call Graham made to police in August year when he named Carruthers as being responsible for cutting the tree down.

Carruthers, 32, said he was a mechanic, worked at a turf farm maintaining all their machinery and looked after some residential flats.

He said said he and Graham “just stumbled upon each other as friends” and denied Graham’s claim that he had a fascination with the Sycamore Gap tree, or kept a piece of string he had used to measure its circumference.

The court heard Carruthers had no previous convictions, reprimands, warnings or cautions and became a father for the second time only 12 days before the tree was felled.

The Sycamore Gap pictured today

Following the men’s conviction for chopping down the Sycamore Gap, police said neither of them had explained why the tree was targeted.

The court heard Daniel Graham claimed Adam Carruthers had a fascination with the historic sycamore but he denied the claim.

Speaking after the trial concluded, Superintendent Kevin Waring, of Northumbria Police said:

We often hear references made to mindless acts of vandalism – but that term has never been more relevant than today in describing the actions of those individuals. At no point have the two men given an explanation for why they targeted the tree – and there never could be a justifiable one.

During the men’s trial, Newcastle Crown Court heard the Sycamore Gap tree was a ‘totemic’ feature of Northumberland.

The damage caused when it was felled was valued at £622,191 for the tree and £1,144 to the wall, which is a Unesco World Heritage Site.

A statement by Tony Wilmott, a senior archaeologist with Historic England, said the Sycamore Gap name was coined in the 1980s and over the decades it has become one of Northumberland’s most appreciated features.

Its unmistakable profile has been repeated in many media and because of this it has become totemic. It has become a place of marriage proposals, family visits and even the location of ashes to be spread. The place is much loved by many thousands of people.

The tree’s reputation captured wider public attention after it featured in the film Robin Hood Prince Of Thieves, starring Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman.

Meanwhile, an archaeologist and inspector for Historic England told how stones in Hadrian’s Wall were also damaged when the tree was felled, as it landed across the wall itself.

The wall is ‘internationally recognised’ in its own right and was designated a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1987.

The Sycamore Gap was believed to be around 150 years old

For well over 100 years the tree at Sycamore Gap had stood in a pleasing dip in the landscape next to Hadrian’s Wall, inspiring countless photographs and artworks.

That was until the night of September 27 2023 when the tree, believed to have been planted by landscaper John Clayton in the 1800s, was illegally felled.

It took just two minutes and 39 seconds for the chainsaw’s teeth to bring it crashing down on to the Roman wall.

The mindless vandalism caused national and international outrage as word spread about what had happened to the tree, which had featured in the Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman film Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves.

Northumberland National Park rangers were in tears when they saw the tree lying across the wall at the remote scene the next morning.

During the trial of Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers, prosecutor Richard Wright KC told Newcastle Crown Court: ‘Over many years the tree, and its situation, became a famous site, reproduced countless times in photographs, feature films and art.’

It was believed that Clayton, a Newcastle-based lawyer who devoted much of his energies to preserving Hadrian’s Wall, planted the tree at that spot to create a feature in the landscape.

The Sycamore Gap was felled in September 2023

Good morning and welcome to MailOnline’s live coverage of the Sycamore Gap sentencing at Newcastle Crown Court.

Former friends Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, felled the beloved 150-year-old tree next to Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland in September 2023 in what was described by prosecutors as a ‘moronic mission’.

At a trial earlier this year, Newcastle Crown Court heard the pair travelled for more than 40 minutes from their homes in Cumbria before carrying out the illegal felling.

One of them filmed the act, although precisely who did what, and why, has never been explained, with the prosecution case claiming that each encouraged the other.

The felling sparked outrage across the country and made headlines around the world with many bemoaning the loss of the tree which featured in the Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman film, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

The men were convicted of criminal damage of the tree and the wall and will be sentenced this morning.

Stick with us for live updates throguhout the sentencing with Glen Keogh on the ground at Newcastle Crown Court and Jamie Bullen reporting from London.