Two Men Convicted of Chopping Down England’s Beloved Sycamore Gap Tree in an Act of ‘Mindless Thuggery’
After five hours of deliberation, jurors found Adam Carruthers and Daniel Graham guilty of criminal damage for felling the iconic tree that stood near Hadrian’s Wall
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Two men have been convicted of chopping down the beloved Sycamore Gap tree, which stood for centuries near Hadrian’s Wall in northern England.
On May 9, a jury found Adam Carruthers and Daniel Graham guilty of two counts each of criminal damage, reports BBC News’ Duncan Leatherdale. The 12 jurors spent a little more than five hours deliberating over two days before delivering their unanimous verdict. Both men face up to ten years in prison and are scheduled for sentencing on July 15.
Though the case is now closed, the world may never know why the two men felled one of England’s favorite trees. During their eight-day trial at Newcastle Crown Court in northeast England, the two men maintained their innocence.
Prosecutors, however, described the crime as “mindless thuggery” and argued that the two men cut down the tree for a “bit of a laugh,” according to BBC News.
“Up and down the country and across the world, the reaction of all right-thinking people to the senseless felling of the Sycamore Gap tree has been one of sadness and anger,” prosecutor Richard Wright told the jury, as reported by the Guardian’s Mark Brown. “Who would do such a thing? Why would anyone do such a thing? Take something beautiful and destroy it for no good reason.”
On the morning of September 28, 2023, a farmer called the police to report that the Sycamore Gap tree had been chopped down. When authorities arrived on the scene, they found the tree’s crown lying on one side of Hadrian’s Wall, while its stump stood on the other side. Based on the cut marks, they suspected a chainsaw had been used.
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The solitary tree had been growing in a dip in the landscape right next to the wall, which was built by the Roman army starting around 122 C.E. Archaeologists later confirmed that, when the tree fell atop the wall, it damaged part of the historic structure.
Located in Northumberland National Park, the Sycamore Gap tree was well-known throughout England and beyond. It appeared in the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and was named the “English tree of the year” in 2016 by the conservation charity Woodland Trust. Photographers flocked to the area to capture striking images of the lone tree framed by rolling hills.
Police initially arrested a 16-year-old boy, followed by a man in his 60s. They later arrested two men in their 30s—who turned out to be Carruthers and Graham—and charged them in connection with the crime.
At the trial, prosecutors laid out the trail of evidence they had gathered. Location data placed Carruthers’ cell phone near the tree on the afternoon of September 27. Later that night, records show he called Graham, and the two had a short conversation. Roughly an hour after the phone call, a traffic camera captured Graham’s vehicle on a road that led toward the tree.
On Graham’s phone, police also found a dark video of a tree being cut down with a chainsaw. The video’s metadata showed it had been taken near the Sycamore Gap tree on the same night it was felled; it had also been sent to Carruthers’ phone.
Not long after the video was taken, a camera recorded Graham’s vehicle heading away from the tree. Then, Graham’s phone was used to take a photo of a chainsaw and a large wedge of wood in the trunk of his car.
The next day, Carruthers and Graham exchanged multiple text and voice messages about the global news coverage of the incident.
Prosecutors aren’t sure which man cut down the tree and which one filmed the video. But Graham and Carruthers were “the only people in the world who had the video on their devices,” writes Brian Melley for the Associated Press.
“What a coincidence,” Wright told the jury at the trial.
He also argued that whoever filmed the video was just as culpable as the one who wielded the chain saw.
“They were in it together,” he told the jurors, as reported by the New York Times’ Lizzie Dearden.
The two men had once been good friends. But Graham reported Carruthers to the police in August 2024. At the trial, Graham also claimed that Carruthers took his car and his phone without his permission while he was sleeping and that he had nothing to do with the crime.
“I was not part of this plan,” Graham said at trial, as reported by the Times. “I agree that my Range Rover and my phone were used. The wedge photos were taken in my yard, but I was not the other person involved.”
Carruthers told jurors he had “no clue” who cut down the tree, as reported by BBC News.
The Sycamore Gap’s legacy, meanwhile, will live on. Some of its seeds have sprouted into saplings, which officials are calling “trees of hope” and distributing across the United Kingdom. The largest section of the tree will also be put on public display, according to Northumberland National Park.
