LONDON (AP) — Vandals who cut down England’s beloved Sycamore Gap tree were sentenced Tuesday to more than four years in prison for damaging the country's natural heritage and for the widespread outrage and distress it caused.
Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers set out on a dark and stormy night in 2023 to carry out what a prosecutor called a “moronic mission,” and toppled the majestic sycamore onto Hadrian’s Wall.
Graham, 39, and Carruthers, 32, were each convicted of two counts of criminal damage — one for destroying the tree, the other for damaging the ancient wall that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Justice Christina Lambert sentenced the pair in Newcastle Crown Court to four years and three months in prison because there was a high degree of premeditation and planning to destroy the tree and because the act had angered and saddened so many people.
Lambert concluded the two had largely done it for the “sheer bravado.”
“Felling the tree in the middle of the night and in the middle of a storm gave you some sort of thrill,” she said. “You reveled in the coverage, taking evident pride in what you had done, knowing that you were responsible for the crime which so many were talking about.”
Sarah Dodd, a lawyer specializing in tree law, said it was the first time in the U.K. that someone had been sentenced to prison for illegally felling a tree.
“Today felt profoundly sad. There are no winners,” Dodd said. “The Sycamore Gap tree wasn’t just wood and leaves. It was a marker of memory, history, belonging.”
The tree, perched in a saddle between two hills, had been known to locals for its scenic setting, but became famous after a cameo in Kevin Costner’s 1991 film “Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves.” It drew tourists, lovers, landscape photographers and those who spread the ashes of loved ones. It was voted English “Tree of the Year” in 2016.
Some of the mystery behind the crime evaporated during the hearing.
At trial, the two men testified they were at their respective homes on the night in question and had nothing to do with destroying the tree.
But faced with spending up to 10 years behind bars, they recently changed their tunes when interviewed by a probation officer in advance of sentencing, though they sought to minimize their culpability, the judge said.
Carruthers said he drank a bottle of whisky after a rough day and everything was a blur, Lambert said. While Graham admitted he had joined Carruthers on the journey, he said he was shocked that his former friend had actually cut the tree down.
“Although there may be grains of truth in what you have each said, I do not accept that your explanations to the probation officers are wholly honest or the whole story,” Lambert said.
The illegal felling in Northumberland National Park on Sept. 28, 2023, caused fury and condemnation as news quickly spread beyond the ancient wall built by Emperor Hadrian in A.D. 122 to protect the northwest frontier of the Roman Empire.
“This iconic tree can never be replaced,” Andrew Poad, general manager of the heritage and nature conservation charity National Trust, said in a statement read by a prosecutor. “It belonged to the people. It was a totemic symbol for many; a destination to visit whilst walking Hadrian’s Wall, a place to make memories, take photos in all seasons; but it was also a place of sanctuary."
Despite the denials by the defendants, jurors had quickly convicted them in May after prosecutors presented a case that relied heavily on digital evidence.
Graham’s Range Rover was tracked to a location near the tree around the time it fell. Grainy video of the felling was found on his phone — with metadata showing that it was shot at the location of the tree.
As digital data showed Graham’s vehicle on its way back to where the two lived about 40 minutes away, Carruthers got a text from his girlfriend with footage of their 12-day-old son.
“I’ve got a better video than that,” Carruthers replied.
The black and white video showed a single figure next to the tree's prominent silhouette as the wind blew and a chainsaw sparked to life. The person leaned into the trunk and in less than three minutes the tree that had stood for about 150 years teetered and crashed to the ground.
Prosecutors couldn’t say at trial who cut down the tree and who memorialized the senseless act, but said both were equally culpable.
Lambert agreed that both shared equal responsibility. But she said that the recent admissions of both men made it clear that Carruthers wielded the saw while Graham shot the video. Graham had sent the video to Carruthers.
Carruthers will have to carry the burden for his actions like a “form of personal penance,” defense lawyer Andrew Gurney said.
“Unfortunately, it is no more than drunken stupidity," Gurney said. “He felled that tree and it is something he will regret for the rest of his life. There’s no better explanation than that.”
Brian Melley, The Associated Press
