SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
By Brian Melley
London: In late September 2023, as the first big autumn storm was brewing in the United Kingdom, a malicious plan was hatched to take down one of England’s favourite trees, a 150-year-old sycamore planted symmetrically between two hills along an ancient wall.
The tree had been loved by locals for generations, drawing lovers on picnics, landscape photographers and even those looking for a peaceful place to spread the ashes of their loved ones. When it appeared in Kevin Costner’s 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves, tourists too began turning up to stand under its old branches.
The Sycamore Tree was loved around the world.Credit: Getty Images
But that all came to end on that night almost two years ago. As the storm kicked off, Daniel Graham sent a message to his buddy, Adam Carruthers, telling him to “get the saws warmed up”, suggesting they might get some work clearing fallen trees.
But jurors determined on Friday that it was not high winds which brought down the Sycamore Gap tree. It was Graham and Carruthers, in a deliberate, three-minute act of destruction.
Even without the smoking chainsaw, prosecutors were able to prove the case through a trove of digital evidence that either put the men near the tree at the time it was felled or showed them excitedly discussing it the next day as the story of the tree’s demise went viral.
The pair were convicted of two counts each of criminal damage by a jury in Newcastle Crown Court after little more than five hours of deliberations over two days.
Crime caught in the act
The prime piece of evidence was a grainy video on Graham’s phone of the crime being committed on the dark and stormy night.
Footage of the tree’s last stand showed a solitary figure silhouetted beneath the towering canopy in a struggle with the trunk as the unmistakable sound of the chainsaw whined above the wind. With a single crack, the buzz of the saw died down, the person stepped back and the tree that had stood at Hadrian’s Wall for about 150 years crashed to earth.
Metadata pinpointed the location of the video at the tree’s location in Northumberland National Park. Other data showed Graham’s Range Rover had travelled there.
Police examine the felled Sycamore Gap tree, on Hadrian’s Wall, on September 29, 2023.Credit: AP
The Sycamore Gap tree was not Britain’s biggest or oldest sycamore, but it was prized for its picturesque setting, planted in a gap along the famous wall built by Emperor Hadrian in AD122 to protect the north-west frontier of the Roman Empire.
“For over a century, Sycamore Gap has been an iconic natural landmark in the north-east of England, bringing immeasurable joy to those visiting the area,” prosecutor Gale Gilchrist told the court.
“In just under three minutes, Graham and Carruthers ended its historic legacy in a deliberate and mindless act of destruction.”
Convicts could face ‘lengthy’ sentences
Neither Graham, who had a small construction business, nor Carruthers, a mechanic who sometimes worked with him, showed any visible reaction as the verdicts were read.
Justice Christina Lambert ordered both men be held in custody until sentencing on July 15 and said they could face “a lengthy period in custody”. The maximum sentence for criminal damage is 10 years in prison.
The defendants, once close friends, both testified that they were at their respective homes that night and had nothing to do with the crime.
Graham pointed the finger at Carruthers, saying he was obsessed with the tree. Graham said his friend and another man had taken his Range Rover and phone to the site to frame him.
Daniel Graham, left, and Adam Carruthers were convicted of cutting down the beloved Sycamore Gap tree.Credit: AP
Carruthers said he didn’t understand why people were so upset about “just a tree”, saying it was “almost as if someone had been murdered.” His lawyer suggested Graham told a desperate lie after being caught.
Prosecutor Richard Wright said the two men were in on it together from the start, with evidence showing Carruthers had gone far out of his way earlier in the day to go near the tree on a reconnaissance mission.
Wright said he couldn’t say who cut the tree and who held the phone, but the two men were the only people in the world with the video on their devices.
As Graham’s vehicle was tracked on its way back towards his home in Carlisle – about 40 minutes away – Carruthers received a video from his partner of their infant and replied, “I’ve got a better video than that,” Wright said.
“At the time of that text conversation, the only people in the world who knew the tree had been felled were the men who had cut it down,” Wright said.
“And the only people in the world who had access to the video were the men who had filmed themselves in the act of cutting down the tree: the defendants Graham and Carruthers.”
Missing: one chainsaw and a ‘trophy’ wedge of wood
The next day, the two men feverishly exchanged messages after the tree was discovered. “It’s gone viral. It is worldwide,” Graham said.
Carruthers forwarded a Facebook comment by a man who criticised the “disgusting behaviour” of the “weak” vandals. Carruthers said he’d like to see the man “launch an operation like we did last night”.
The tree after it was cut down.Credit: Getty Images
Wright said police never located the chainsaw used to fell the tree, but each man had access to plenty of saws – a fact they both tried to downplay.
Investigators also couldn’t find a wedge of wood cut from the trunk to drop the tree in the right direction. But images on Graham’s phone showed a slice of wood and a chainsaw in the back of his vehicle at his home. A forensic botanist said there was “very strong evidence” it was the missing wedge that Wright suggested had been taken as a trophy.
Prosecutors offered no evidence of a motive for the crime other than calling it senseless vandalism. But Wright suggested to jurors in his closing argument that the men cut the tree down for “a bit of a laugh” but had failed to realise the anger they would spark in the “arboreal equivalent of mindless thuggery”.
The tree was originally valued at more than £620,000 pounds (about $1.3 million) and damage to the wall was estimated at £1100 pounds. But prosecutor Rebecca Brown said those figures were in dispute and were likely lower, but would still easily fit in the top category of harm for sentencing purposes.
AP
