Carruthers’ involvement in felling was due to ‘drunken stupidity’, defence says
Gurney, speaking for Carruthers, said his client had finally offered a motive for chopping down the tree.
He said:
He has made admissions in his Pre-Sentence Report. He does wish to cleanse his conscience of what he has done.
People want to know ‘Why? Why did you conduct this mindless act?’
Unfortunately, it is no more than drunken stupidity.
He felled that tree and it is something he will regret for the rest of his life. There’s no better explanation than that.
Gurney said Carruthers was a good father, a hard-worker and hitherto, was of good character.
This act of criminal damage was “anathema” to him, Gurney said.
He added:
That is not the sort of person he is, or wants to be.
He does wish to make good on that on his release. He hopes, by his actions moving forward, he can repay what he has done, in some way.
Lambert said she will pass sentence from 2.15pm on Tuesday.
Key events
Lambert said Carruthers marked the trunk with spray paint on the night of the offence, before felling it in an act that lasted no more than two and a half to three minutes.
She said Graham took a nearby viewing point and recorded the video of the felling on his mobile phone.
The judge added that police recognised immediately that the trunk had been deliberately cut down. She said that the pair “revelled in their notoriety” during the media coverage after the felling.
Mrs Justice Lambert has begun speaking in court as the hearing resumes.
She said:
You went with the intention of felling the sycamore tree which had grown in the dip of Hadrian’s Wall.
As experienced tree surgeons you took with you the tools which you needed for that task.
The judge said the pair arrived at the site shortly before midnight on 27 September 2023.
She added that they both walked about 15 to 20 minutes to the tree from a nearby car park.
Judge Lambert is now speaking, you can see a feed here
Carruthers and Graham were once close, working and socialising together, but have fallen out since their arrests and each has come to blame the other.
At trial, Graham claimed Carruthers had a fascination with the sycamore, saying he had described it as “the most famous tree in the world” and spoken of wanting to cut it down, even keeping a piece of string in his workshop that he had used to measure its circumference.
Carruthers denied this and told the court he could not understand the outcry over the story, saying it was “just a tree”.
Asked why he showed such an interest in headlines and social media about the felling in the early hours of 28 September 2023, he said:
My understanding was it was just a tree, I couldn’t understand why everyone was sharing it, every second post was about this tree. I just couldn’t get my head round it.
Asked by his barrister Andrew Gurney why he and Graham were messaging each other about the tree, Carruthers said:
I couldn’t really understand why there was such a major outbreak – it was almost as if someone had been murdered.
Graham, who ran a groundwork business near Carlisle, told the court Carruthers must have borrowed his car and phone while he was asleep in his caravan after taking a sleeping pill.
Carruthers, a mechanic living in a caravan in Kirkbride, said he was not at the site of the crime. His barrister said it made no sense for a man to be “gallivanting around the national park cutting down Sycamore Gap” just five days after his partner had left hospital with their newborn baby.
Mark Brown
Mark Brown is north of England correspondent at the Guardian, based in north-east England. He has written the below analysis on the significance of the Sycamore Gap tree.
“It was just a tree,” said a mystified Adam Carruthers, one of the two men who illegally cut down the tree at Sycamore Gap in the early hours of a stormy night nearly two years ago. “It was almost as if someone had been murdered.”
Carruthers was right about the reaction to the felling. Many likened its loss to that of a good friend or relative. Its destruction prompted feelings of sadness, grief and then blind fury. Some people wept.
Carruthers was wrong to see it as just a tree. It was a beautiful, life-enhancing place for countless photographs, declarations of love, engagements, birthdays and ash scatterings but it was also more than that. Many considered it part of the DNA of north-east England. Its felling was seen as a symbol of humanity’s wider war on nature. Its legacy is fast becoming one of hope and optimism.
What is certain is that none of these emotions or complexities or nuances were in the minds of Carruthers, 32, and Daniel Graham, 39, when they travelled from their homes in Cumbria over the border to Northumberland on 27 September 2023.
As Storm Agnes raged, the two friends set off in Graham’s black Range Rover Sport with a chainsaw in the boot. When they got to the tree, which has stood on Hadrian’s Wall since the late 19th century, they set about deliberately and methodically cutting it down. They apparently saw it as a laugh.
You can read more of Mark Brown’s article on the Sycamore Gap tree here: ‘Stealing joy’: the sadness and symbolism of the crime at Sycamore Gap
Carruthers’ involvement in felling was due to ‘drunken stupidity’, defence says
Gurney, speaking for Carruthers, said his client had finally offered a motive for chopping down the tree.
He said:
He has made admissions in his Pre-Sentence Report. He does wish to cleanse his conscience of what he has done.
People want to know ‘Why? Why did you conduct this mindless act?’
Unfortunately, it is no more than drunken stupidity.
He felled that tree and it is something he will regret for the rest of his life. There’s no better explanation than that.
Gurney said Carruthers was a good father, a hard-worker and hitherto, was of good character.
This act of criminal damage was “anathema” to him, Gurney said.
He added:
That is not the sort of person he is, or wants to be.
He does wish to make good on that on his release. He hopes, by his actions moving forward, he can repay what he has done, in some way.
Lambert said she will pass sentence from 2.15pm on Tuesday.
Andrew Gurney, for Adam Carruthers, said the defendant played an active role in bringing up his children, ages six and two.
Being in prison since May had been “torture” for him as he had never been away from his children for so long, Gurney said.
It is his stupid actions that have caused him to be taken away from his family and his children.
The defence representative added:
Mr Carruthers is someone who is going to have to bear the burden of what he has done for the rest of his life.
He is a man of previous good character. That is gone.
He will forever be linked to this act.
He will have to carry this as some form of personal penance.
Defence describes ‘malign intent’ towards Graham
Chris Knox, defending Daniel Graham, said the defendant had set up a “proper business which paid tax and did all the appropriate things”.
He said the ground worker’s home, and the business he operated from it, were attacked after he was remanded in custody, including having windows broken, the barrister said.
He said:
He is a troubled man who has had very real difficulties in his life, which have not all been of his own making.
Graham had also received hate mail which showed “very unpleasant, malign intent towards him,” Knox said.
He included four character references for the judge to consider.
Referring to a previous depressive illness that Graham had suffered from, which resulted in him going to hospital, Justice Lambert said she had been told that the condition was in remission.
Knox agreed and said that he was not asking the judge to give Graham a discounted sentence, but he reaffirmed that the defendant was “a man who has had difficulties”.
Knox said Graham will have to rebuild his life when he is eventually released, adding: “He will have to rely on his friends to get himself re-established.”
Wright said the two offences were committed jointly by both defendants throughout.
Justice Lambert asked if Wright would consider a four-year sentence sufficient.
He said it was not for the Crown to suggest a specific sentence but the guidelines provided “headroom” for the judge to take the starting point of 18 months and then lengthen the jail term when considering aggravating factors.
Prosecutor Wright said that in their pre-sentence reports both defendants “now appear to have admitted their role in felling the tree, in the sense they both admit they went on the mission”.
He told the court they denied intending for the tree to be cut down, either saying they were intoxicated or that they “didn’t believe it would happen until it did”.
Wright said:
The prosecution rejects these late admissions… The court can be sure they were sober and prepared to do what they did.
He said one of the aggravating factors was the site’s heritage status and the defendants’ attempts to avoid detection.
Wright said they knew other people, including a young boy, had been arrested in connection with the offence and were “closely following (the investigation) when they knew they were responsible”.
Richard Wright, prosecuting, said there was a “high degree of planning and premeditation”.
He told the court:
This was an expedition which required significant planning in terms of taking a vehicle, driving for about 40 minutes to a car park, taking with them appropriate specialist equipment, carrying the equipment for about 20 minutes’ walk in each direction.
The felling was carried out in a deliberate, professional way.
Wright said the prosecution allege that the night was selected because of the weather, and Daniel Graham had said during the trial it was easier to fell a tree in high winds.
National Trust manager Andrew Poad’s victim impact statement said the cost of removing the tree was £30,000, with £20,000 to be spent on the site in 2025, all paid for from charitable funds.
He said an email address set up within days of the felling for people to share thoughts received 600 responses in a month.
One said:
My husband proposed to me at Sycamore Gap under its leafy shelter. A few years ago after lockdown we took our children to see and walk the same section of the wall.
I’m so glad we got to share such a beautiful and special spot with them before it was gone.
A further response said:
A simply iconic part of our North East heritage, representing strength and longevity.
The court was shown pictures of the new Sycamore Gap Celebration Room at The Sill site in Northumberland, and some comments left by people on a board and in the visitors’ book.
One said:
Nature at its best over 300 years, humanity at its worst over one night.
Sarah Dodd is the founding owner and CEO of Tree Law, a firm set up to manage legal issues involving trees.
She says the sentencing of Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers will be a “significant moment”, not just for those directly involved, but for everyone who cares about protecting our natural environment.
She said:
The Sycamore Gap tree wasn’t just any tree. It was an iconic landmark, rooted in history and deeply loved by so many.
Its felling felt mindless. A single act that destroyed something which took centuries to grow and stood as part of our shared landscape. The sense of outrage and sadness it caused shows how much trees matter to people’s lives and identities.
Dodd said she hopes the sentencing will send a “powerful message” about the need to respect and uphold the legal frameworks in place to safeguard the environment.
She added:
This case is unprecedented. We have rarely seen prosecutions like this, and the length of sentencing being considered is a clear reflection of the seriousness with which the court views this crime. It shows that tree protection laws carry real weight, and that damaging our natural heritage is not something that will be tolerated lightly.