Two men, Daniel Michael Graham and Adam Carruthers, have been found guilty of the “mindless destruction” of the world-famous Sycamore Gap tree in Northumberland.
The tree had grown in a dip on Hadrian’s Wall for over 100 years before being cut down in a “moronic mission” on 28 September 2023. Graham and Carruthers were each convicted of two counts of criminal damage.
The tree had been planted in the late 1800s to be a “feature in the landscape”, fulfilling its ambition and becoming a popular visitor destination and landmark at the former frontier of the Roman Empire. It gained global fame after featuring in a scene from the 1991 film “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves”.
The National Trust, which had owned the tree since the 1940s, welcomed the verdicts and said the “needless” felling had “shocked people around the world.” They said there would be a “positive legacy” with 49 saplings grown from the tree set to be distributed to charities and organisations across the country.
The court heard that there was a dispute over the valuation of the tree, but all parties agreed it would not affect the men’s sentence, which, according to sentencing guidelines, could be up to 10 years in prison.
The tree had stood for more than a century and was an “emblem” of north-east England and a “backdrop to many personal memories”.
