It was a crime that rocked not only the North East, but the entire UK and people across the globe.
Sycamore Gap had stood for more than 100 years before Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers inexplicably felled it in September 2023. It was among the UK’s most photographed trees and was made famous in a scene in Kevin Costner’s 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves.
Carruthers, bemused by the outpouring of emotion and anger at their actions, said it was ‘just a tree’. It wasn’t though was it? Rob Kennedy is the court reporter for our sister title Chronicle Online and has been covering the court case – along with journalists from all over the world. Today, the pair were found guilty of criminal damage to both the tree and Hadrian’s Wall. You can read Rob’s coverage of how today unfolded in court here.
Meanwhile, here is his take on it.
Sycamore Gap feller Adam Carruthers said it was “just a tree”.
For thousands of people around North East, the country and even the world, it was so much more than that. He also said the reaction to it was almost as if someone had been murdered.
For those in court for the case over the past couple of weeks, you would think it was so much more than that. Never, in my many years covering Newcastle Crown Court, has a criminal damage trial been so high profile.
High Court judges and Kings Counsel barristers are usually the preserve of murder and manslaughter trials. But here we had one of the most senior KCs in the area – Richard Wright – prosecuting and Mrs Justice Lambert presiding over the case.
(Image: Northumbria Police)
Most criminal damage trials attract no media attention. Even most murder trials might only be covered by two or three local journalists. In this case, not only were there multiple local journalists either in court or linked in remotely, there were national newspaper and TV reporters hanging on every word.
READ MORE:
The BBC had a team of reporters on it. The 12 Press seats in court were full and more than 20 reporters were linked into court online throughout.
Even the New York Times were watching. All over what was “just a tree”? Except it wasn’t just a tree though was it? It was a much-treasured, much loved, much-photographed North East landmark.
A piece of history which had featured in a Robin Hood film and had been the site of marriage proposals and ashes scatterings. And here we were watching shocking grainy footage of it being felled to a soundtrack of a relentless chainsaw followed by a sad creak and crash as the tree toppled onto Hadrian’s Wall and the ground.
Something so beautiful savagely destroyed in minutes. Gone forever. That iconic site never to be seen again. So senseless, so mindless, so moronic. That’s what made this case so high profile.
Many hoped the court case would reveal the answer to the very obvious question of why two friends, Carruthers and Daniel Graham, ventured out into a storm in the middle of the night to do this? The answer to that remains unclear. But here they were in the middle of a storm of another kind.
Two fairly basic, no frills, hard-working Cumbrian men at the centre of a global media storm. Graham was swearing and stroppy in his police interviews and in court.
Seemingly indignant at being accused, so much so he was almost believable at times. But not quite. Whatever their motive, they clearly did not expect the vitriolic reaction of the public to their dastardly act that night.
Carruthers himself said he simply couldn’t understand the attention the case had generated. In their voice notes the following day, they seemed to be revelling in what they had done and the reaction to it. Those messages were pretty damning evidence as they rang out across the courtroom.
Later, faced with being public enemy number one, the former pals turned on each other. Graham blamed Carruthers, Carruthers insinuated Graham was guilty. The tension between them in the dock was evident throughout. Now, as they face up to prison sentences, they surely must appreciate this was so much more than “just a tree”.