By BRIAN MELLEY, Associated Press
LONDON (AP) — In late September 2023, as the first big storm of the fall was kicking up in the U.K., a malicious plan was hatched to take down one of England’s favorite trees.
Daniel Graham sent a message to his buddy, Adam Carruthers, telling him to “get the saws warmed up,” suggesting they might get some work clearing fallen trees.
But it wasn’t high winds that brought down the famous Sycamore Gap tree that night, jurors determined Friday. It was Graham and Carruthers — not cleaning up damage from the storm, but creating a mess of their own.
FILE – The felled Sycamore Gap tree is removed at Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland, England, Oct. 11, 2023. (Owen Humphreys/PA via AP, File)The pair were convicted of two counts each of criminal damage by a jury in Newcastle Crown Court after little more than five hours of deliberations over two days.
Even without the smoking chainsaw, prosecutors were able to prove the case through a trove of digital evidence that either put the men near the tree at the time it was felled or showed them excitedly discussing it the next day as the story of the tree’s demise went viral.
Crime caught in the act
The prime piece of evidence was a grainy video on Graham’s phone of the crime being committed on the dark and stormy night.
Footage of the tree’s last stand showed a solitary figure silhouetted beneath the towering canopy in a struggle with the trunk as the unmistakable sound of the chainsaw whined above the wind. With a single crack, the buzz of the saw died down, the person stepped back and the tree that had stood about 150 years crashed to earth.
Metadata pinpointed the location of the video at the tree’s location in Northumberland National Park. Other data showed Graham’s Range Rover had traveled there.
The Sycamore Gap tree was not Britain’s biggest or oldest sycamore, but it was prized for its picturesque setting, symmetrically planted between two hills along the ancient wall built by Emperor Hadrian in A.D. 122 to protect the northwest frontier of the Roman Empire, and had attracted generations of followers.
The tree had long been known to locals but received international attention in Kevin Costner’s 1991 film “Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves.” It drew tourists, lovers, landscape photographers and even those who spread the ashes of loved ones.
“For over a century, Sycamore Gap has been an iconic natural landmark in the northeast of England, bringing immeasurable joy to those visiting the area,” Gale Gilchrist, chief prosecutor for the region, said in a statement after the verdict. “In just under three minutes, Graham and Carruthers ended its historic legacy in a deliberate and mindless act of destruction.”
Convicts could face ‘lengthy’ sentences
Neither Graham, who had a small construction business, nor Carruthers, a mechanic who sometimes worked with him, showed any visible reaction as the verdicts were read.
Justice Christina Lambert ordered both men held in custody until sentencing on July 15 and said they could face “a lengthy period in custody.” The maximum sentence for criminal damage is 10 years in prison.
The defendants, once close friends, both testified that they were at their respective homes that night and had nothing to do with the crime.
Graham pointed the finger at Carruthers, saying he was obsessed with the tree. Graham said his friend and another man had taken his Range Rover and phone to the site to frame him.
Carruthers said he didn’t understand why people were so upset about “just a tree,” saying it was “almost as if someone had been murdered.” His lawyer suggested Graham told a desperate lie after being caught.
Prosecutor Richard Wright said the two men were in on it together from the start, with evidence showing Carruthers had gone far out of his way earlier in the day to go near the tree on a reconnaissance mission.
Wright said he couldn’t say who cut the tree and who held the phone, but the two men were the only people in the world with the video on their devices.
As Graham’s vehicle was tracked on its way back toward his home in Carlisle — about 40 minutes away — Carruthers received a video from his partner of their infant and replied, “I’ve got a better video than that,” Wright said.
“At the time of that text conversation, the only people in the world who knew the tree had been felled were the men who had had cut it down,” Wright said. “And the only people in the world who had access to the video were the men who had filmed themselves in the act of cutting down the tree: the defendants Graham and Carruthers.”
Missing: one chainsaw and a ‘trophy’ wedge of wood
The next day, the two feverishly exchanged messages after the tree was discovered.
“It’s gone viral. It is worldwide,” Graham said.
Carruthers forwarded a Facebook comment by a man who criticized the “disgusting behavior” of the “weak” vandals.
Carruthers said he’d like to see the man “launch an operation like we did last night.”
Wright said police never located the chainsaw used to fell the tree, but each man had access to plenty of saws — a fact they both tried to downplay. Investigators also couldn’t find a wedge of wood cut from the trunk to drop the tree in the right direction.
But images on Graham’s phone showed a slice of wood and a chainsaw in the back of his vehicle at his home. A forensic botanist said there was “very strong evidence” it was the missing wedge that Wright suggested had been taken as a trophy.
Prosecutors offered no evidence of a motive for the crime other than calling it senseless vandalism. But Wright suggested to jurors in his closing argument that the men cut the tree down for “a bit of a laugh” but had failed to realize the anger they would spark in the “arboreal equivalent of mindless thuggery.”
The tree was originally valued at more than 620,000 pounds (around $830,000) and damage to the wall was estimated at 1,100 pounds (nearly $1,500).
But on Friday prosecutor Rebecca Brown said those figures are in dispute and are likely lower, but would still easily fit in the top category of harm for sentencing purposes.
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