Two of the men accused of cutting down the iconic Sycamore Gap tree did it ‘as a bit of a laugh’ then feared becoming public enemy number one, a court heard.
Adam Carruthers, 32, and Daniel Graham, 39, are accused of two counts of criminal damage to the tree and Hadrian’s Wall in September 2023.
Prosecutors say Carruthers and Graham drove from Carlisle, Cumbria, overnight to cut down the tree.
Both men deny involvement and claim they were at their homes during the night in question.
The ongoing trial at Newcastle crown court heard today the closing speeches from the prosecution case.
Prosecutor Richard Wright KC said it was the ‘arboreal equivalent of mindless thuggery’.
He said it was the ‘two-man team’ and ‘odd couple’ who saw it as ‘just a tree’ and ‘they must have thought that this was a bit of a laugh’.
Mr Wright said they had not appreciated the public’s outrage at the destruction of ‘something so beautiful for no good reason’.
He said: ‘From Felixstowe to Falkirk and from Bishop Auckland to Barnstable, up and down this country and across the world, the reaction of all right-thinking people to the senseless felling of the Sycamore Gap tree has been one of sadness and anger.’
He said the video the pair allegedly filmed of ‘the moment the world famous tree was cut down’ was ‘gold dust’ and would have ‘gone viral’.
Mr Wright told jurors Graham and Carruthers had the video on their phone and knew what happened to the tree.
He added: ‘Owning up to this arboreal equivalent of mindless thuggery would make them public enemy number one.’
Carruthers claimed he was staying at home with his partner and their newborn baby.
Graham also said he was home that night, and said while his Range Rover was driven to the car park nearest to Sycamore Gap and his phone was used to film the tree being felled, he said his co-accused took both.
Chris Knox, for Graham, said the defendants had fallen out ‘spectacularly’.
He said Graham was ‘stroppy’ when answering questions and asked the jury: ‘Does that make him the Sycamore Gap tree murderer?
‘Or does it mean exactly what he said in his interviews with the police – he has been dropped in this?’
Andrew Gurney, defending Carruthers, said Graham ‘named Adam Carruthers because he needs a scapegoat’.
Carruthers was in the dock ‘not because he was found at the scene…but because of Daniel Graham’s mobile phone and the words of one man – Daniel Graham, who having found himself in the dock, has reached desperately for a lifeline and tried to throw Adam Carruthers under the bus to save his own skin,’ Mr Gurney said.
He continued: ‘Adam Carruthers was not creeping about a national park in the dead of night. He was at home with his partner.’
Mr Gurney reminded jurors that his newborn daughter had returned from hospital five days prior.
The trial continues.
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