‘Revenge’ for a planning dispute or the desire to get a souvenir for a newborn girl were the possible reasons two groundworkers cut down Britain’s most famous tree, it can be revealed today as they were both found guilty.
Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, face up to ten years in prison for felling the Sycamore Gap tree during a ‘moronic mission’ which lasted less than three minutes, and causing damage to Hadrian’s Wall in the process.
Jurors found the pair guilty after their friendship degenerated and they tried to pin the blame on each other in court. The verdicts were delivered after five hours of deliberations
The trial previously heard that Carruthers had chopped down the tree so he could present it to his newborn baby girl as a ‘trophy’ – without realising the revulsion this would cause.
Another theory is that the plot to chop down the tree was hatched as Graham was facing removal from his ramshackle home in the shadow of Hadrian’s Wall – branded a ‘shanty town’ by long-suffering neighbours.
Some locals in the remote rural area are convinced that the groundworker’s motive in targeting the iconic tree stems from his grievance with authority over his failure to secure planning approval for the eyesore he created in the unspoilt landscape.
Graham bought a small plot of farmland in Grinsdale Bridge near the Cumbrian village of Kirkandrews-on-Eden in 2015, the Telegraph reported.
There he quickly established a number of buildings on the property and gained planning permission for a stable block, horse shelter and storage units.
But locals complained when Graham moved into a caravan on the site shortly afterwards, using it as the base for his business, DM Graham Groundworks – which lists tree clearance among its services.
Officers instantly recognised his voice as he told them that ‘one of the lads that [did] it, Adam Carruthers,’ had taken his chainsaws back home.
The ‘anonymous caller’ said if police searched Carruthers’ home and workshop they would find the saws and part of the felled tree, along with a shotgun and a pistol. No firearms, chainsaws or the tree wedge were found, however.
On December 1, 2024, days before the trial was originally scheduled to begin, Graham took to Facebook to accuse Carruthers of felling the tree, posting a series of images of his former friend.
‘I truly would not do it,’ he wrote.
‘It’s my picture everywhere. Well, here’s a picture of the man with [the] hidden face.’
In a tense exchange with Mr Wright during his cross examination, Graham tried to justify turning on his friend.
He developed the land – which he named Millbeck Stables – into a sprawling ‘shanty town’.
When neighbours complained about additional prefab buildings erected without planning permission, the noise of his dogs and the constant to-ing and fro-ing of the lorries he used in his groundwork business they were met with aggression.
A neighbour told the Telegraph that Graham had ‘completely destroyed the look and peace of this area’ and that ‘harsh words’ had been exchanged.
‘It was unbelievable that he managed to establish a home there on what had previously been a green field,’ they said.
Graham applied to Cumberland Council for permission to live there lawfully in October 2022 despite never having sought planning permission, the Sun reported.
But after neighbours objected and the local parish council said people felt threatened by his ‘dominant and oppressive behaviour’ it was rejected in April 2023 – leaving him facing eviction.
Just five months later, he and Carruthers chopped down the famous tree.
Now some locals believe the ‘moronic’ Sycamore Gap outrage was his bid for revenge on all those he felt had wronged him.
‘It’s what everyone around here was saying and it makes perfect sense,’ one told the Sun.
‘He considered that caravan his permanent home and had asked the council to legally recognise that.
‘When they refused the only way it could ever have ended for him was being evicted.
‘He’s a tree surgeon, he cuts trees down all the time – what better way, in his eyes, for him to take revenge?’
Meanwhile Graham appealed to the planning inspectorate in a bid to avoid eviction, but that was turned down on April 28, the day before his trial began.
He has six months to find somewhere else to live – however his immediate future is now behind bars.
Richard Wright KC said: ‘Though the tree had grown for over a hundred years, the act of irreparably damaging it was the work of a matter of minutes.’
Graham and Carruthers were ‘best of pals’ at the time and regularly worked together felling trees.
Graham’s Land Rover was picked up on automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras between Carlisle and Sycamore Gap at night on September 27 2023, and returning early the next morning. His phone was traced to cell sites making the same journey.
When police arrested the pair and searched 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.
They also found photos and videos of a wedge of tree trunk and a chainsaw in the boot of Graham’s Range Rover, although these have never been found.
Messages and voice notes between Graham and Carruthers the next day showed them talking about the story going ‘wild’ and ‘viral’, referring to ‘an operation like we did last night’ and joking that damage looked like it had been done by a professional.
A man named Kevin Hartness posted about the tree on Facebook, writing: ‘Some weak people that walk this earth; disgusting behaviour.’
Carruthers sent this post to Graham, and later sent a voice note in which he said: ‘I’d like to see Kevin Hartness launch an operation like we did last night… I don’t think he’s got the minerals.’
In August last year, Graham made an anonymous phone call to the police in an attempt to implicate his friend and save himself.
He said Carruthers and an associate had tried to intimidate him into taking the blame for cutting down the tree, insisting that the criminal justice system would be lenient towards him due to his mental health issues.
He added: ‘If someone is costing me money and affecting my business then I will f***ing grass.
‘No doubt about it he [Carruthers] is the one holding the chainsaw. Adam felled the tree, I don’t know 100 per cent who the other person was.
‘I was annoyed about my business suffering through his actions.’
To explain away number plate and phone site evidence against him, Graham insisted that Carruthers and an accomplice had taken his car, with his phone inside, and driven to the Sycamore Gap without his knowledge while he had been sleeping in his caravan.
Carruthers, for his part, did not directly accuse Graham of being involved in felling the tree.
But he insisted that on the evening the tree was felled he had tried to take his partner and young children for a meal at the Metrocentre in Gateshead but turned back because their 11-day-old baby was unsettled.
Jurors rejected these flimsy alibis and found the pair unanimously guilty of causing criminal damage worth £622,191 to the tree and £1,144 worth of damage to Hadrian’s Wall, a Unesco world heritage site owned by the National Trust.
They now face up to ten years in prison.
Sycamore Gap timeline: How damage to the landmark tree unfolded
– September 28, 2023
- 12.32am A video is made on Daniel Graham’s phone showing the sound of a chainsaw, followed by the sound of a tree falling
- 9.46am Police receive a report that the Sycamore Gap tree has been damaged. The investigation begins
– October 31, 2023
- Graham and Adam Carruthers are arrested and interviewed. Police find two chainsaws, and a chainsaw blade and cover at Graham’s house
– November 3, 2023
- Graham and Carruthers are arrested and interviewed again. Carruthers’ property is searched and a chainsaw is found
– April 30, 2024
- Graham and Carruthers are charged with criminal damage. They both later plead not guilty.
– April 28, 2025
- The trial of Graham and Carruthers begins at Newcastle Crown Court
– May 9, 2025
- Graham and Carruthers are found guilty of cutting down the tree in an act of ‘deliberate and mindless criminal damage’
July 15, 2025
- Graham and Carruthers will be sentenced
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14695485/Sycamore-Gap-revenge-motive-planning-dispute.html
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