Two men were sentenced to four years and three months in prison at Newcastle Crown Court on Tuesday. They had cut down England’s most famous tree near Hadrian’s Wall. The sanction falls two years after this act of vandalism which had moved beyond the United Kingdom.
Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, received the same sentence. They faced up to ten years in prison for what prosecutor Richard Wright called a “stupid mission”.
“Shock and amazement”
Judge Christina Lambert who sentenced them stressed that their actions had involved a “high degree of planning and preparation” and caused “shock and amazement”.
The Sycamore Gap Tree, a majestic sycamore maple nestled for over 100 years between two hills in a spectacular landscape in Northumberland (north), was one of the most photographed trees in England.
He was known worldwide since his appearance in “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” with Kevin Costner in 1991.
One night in September 2023
On the night of September 27 to 28, 2023, the two friends, armed with a chainsaw, drove 40 minutes to a parking lot, walked 20 minutes in the dark and one of them filmed the other while he felled the tree, then sending him the video.
They also took a piece of the trunk as a trophy, and the damage amounted to at least 458,000 pounds (491,000 Swiss €) according to the prosecution.
Andrew Poad, one of the leaders of the National Trust organization responsible for managing the site, spoke of an act “beyond comprehension” in a statement read before the verdict.
They loved the cover
The day after their misdeed, Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers reveled in the media coverage of the affair, welcoming a story that had gone “viral” by sending each other voice messages and press articles.
But the two men never explained why they attacked the famous sycamore.
It was “just a tree”
During their trial in May in Newcastle (north-east), where they were both found guilty, Carruthers explained that he did not understand the emotion caused by the destruction of the maple tree. It was “just a tree,” he said.
After initially denying the facts and passing the blame on each other, the former friends admitted to having participated in the operation. One of them claimed that they were intoxicated, which did not convince the prosecution.
Daniel Graham had already been convicted of, among other things, public order offenses in 2021 and 2022. His mobile phone and car were located near the site after the tree fell.
This damaged Hadrian’s Wall, a 135 km long Roman fortification built between 122 and 127 AD. BC and included on the world heritage list by UNESCO.
Jurors were able to see a video shot at night, in which the sound of a chainsaw can be heard, then the trunk collapsing to the ground.
According to Andrew Poad of the National Trust, which manages many of Britain’s heritage sites, an “overwhelming sense of loss and dismay was felt across the world” following the tree’s destruction.
A place for weddings and family memories, extremely photogenic, the maple was voted English tree of the year in 2016.
Renaissance
Last year the National Trust announced that new growth had appeared on the stump.
He also collected seeds and obtained 49 young plants, objects of great care, which must be replanted next winter in spaces accessible to the public, including parks, hospitals and schools.
Part of the trunk has been transformed into a work of art, which visitors can now hug, at the Northumberland National Park Visitor Centre.
In this permanent exhibition, designed by artist Charlie Whinney, the trunk, more than two meters high, is surrounded by three oak benches from where visitors can read poetic words rising from the ground, linked to the initial grief created by its destruction, staged as a branched sculpture.
