{"id":28412,"date":"2025-05-06T16:07:33","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T16:07:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/sycamore-gap-accused-has-no-clue-who-felled-tree-court-hears\/"},"modified":"2025-05-06T16:07:33","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T16:07:33","slug":"sycamore-gap-accused-has-no-clue-who-felled-tree-court-hears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/sycamore-gap-accused-has-no-clue-who-felled-tree-court-hears\/","title":{"rendered":"Sycamore Gap accused has ‘no clue’ who felled tree, court hears"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Duncan Leatherdale<\/span><\/p>\n

BBC News, North East and Cumbria<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Watch the video shown to the jurors above<\/figcaption><\/p>\n
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A second man accused of felling the world famous Sycamore Gap has told jurors he has “no clue” who did it.<\/p>\n

The tree had grown in a dip on Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland for more than 100 years before it was felled in a “moronic mission”<\/a> in the early hours of 28 September 2023, Newcastle Crown Court has heard.<\/p>\n

Daniel Michael Graham, 39, from Carlisle, and Adam Carruthers, 32, from Wigton in Cumbria, each deny two counts of criminal damage relating to the tree and the Roman Wall.<\/p>\n

Mr Carruthers told jurors he was amazed at the public’s reaction as he thought it was “just a tree”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Jurors were previously told the tree was a much-loved landmark<\/a> and had global significance for its position on the former frontier of the Roman empire.<\/p>\n

Mr Graham’s phone and Range Rover were both tracked going to and from the site while a video, which prosecutors allege show the moment the tree was felled, was filmed on his mobile, the court has heard.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"CPSCPS<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers had worked together on projects including felling trees and cutting up timber<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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A wedge of wood was taken as a “trophy” and photographed hours later alongside a chainsaw in the boot of Mr Graham’s car, prosecutors have said.<\/p>\n

Mr Graham previously told jurors he had been asleep that night<\/a> and Mr Carruthers must have taken his car and phone without his knowledge.<\/p>\n

On the sixth day of the trial, Mr Carruthers took to the witness box where he started by denying he had anything to do with felling the tree or filming it.<\/p>\n

His barrister Andrew Gurney asked why Mr Carruthers seemed so interested in the aftermath, exchanging screenshots of social media posts and press reports with his co-accused and swapping voice notes discussing it.<\/p>\n

Mr Carruthers said he just “couldn’t understand” the hysteria he was seeing on Facebook and he wanted to talk about with his friend.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"NickNick Lewis<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers each deny two counts of criminal damage<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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“I didn’t understand how a tree would be able to hit the headlines as much as it did,” he said. “It was almost as if someone had been murdered.”<\/p>\n

He was asked about a voice note in which he said an online commenter, who criticised the vandals, lacked the “minerals” to “launch an operation like we did”.<\/p>\n

Mr Carruthers told jurors: “I think it’s been interpreted wrong.”<\/p>\n

He said he had actually meant to say “he” instead of “we,” referring to whoever it was that had felled the tree although he had “no idea” who that might be.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"CPSCPS<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Experts say a wedge of wood came from the tree and was pictured in Daniel Graham’s car<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Mr Graham had also claimed Mr Carruthers was fascinated with the tree, treasured a piece of string he had used to measure its circumference and had “mentioned” cutting it down, then admitted he had done so in a call to Mr Graham the morning after and later asked his friend to “take the blame”.<\/p>\n

Mr Carruthers told jurors none of that was true.<\/p>\n

He also told the court he had used a chainsaw to trim trees but never to fell one.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"CPSCPS<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Adam Carruthers has been giving evidence to jurors<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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In cross-examination, prosecutor Richard Wright KC asked Mr Carruthers who felled the tree.<\/p>\n

Mr Carruthers replied he had “no clue at all”, adding: “It wasn’t me.”<\/p>\n

He said he thought it was “just a tree” but then, the morning after it was felled, started seeing news reports and public comments appearing “more and more” on social media.<\/p>\n

The prosecutor suggested that was what was at the “heart” of the case.<\/p>\n

“You thought ‘it’s just a tree’.<\/p>\n

“When the rest of the world didn’t think it was just a tree, that it was a terrible and wicked thing to have done, you have lost your bottle and can’t own up to it?”<\/p>\n

Mr Carruthers replied: “That’s not true.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"PAPA Media<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The tree was planted on Hadrian’s Wall in the 1800s<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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He was asked about mobile phone tracking data which showed him travelling to a spot about four miles way from the tree the afternoon before it was felled.<\/p>\n

Mr Graham’s legal team suggested he was “doing a reconnoitre” of the tree, but Mr Carruthers claimed he was taking his partner and their new-born daughter on an impromptu excursion to the Metrocentre for food, turning around when the baby would not settle.<\/p>\n

Mr Wright asked if there were not restaurants in Carlisle they could have visited rather than make a three-hour round trip on an afternoon when storms were forecast to hit the area.<\/p>\n

Mr Carruthers replied the restaurants in Carlisle were “not the best” and the Metrocentre would be better.<\/p>\n

The trial continues.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Duncan Leatherdale BBC News, North East and Cumbria Watch the video shown to the jurors above A second man accused of felling the world famous Sycamore Gap has told jurors he has “no clue” who did it. The tree had grown in a dip on Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland for more than 100 years before […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[357,9896,595,7727,914,1990,5678,2635],"class_list":["post-28412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-england","tag-accused","tag-clue","tag-court","tag-felled","tag-gap","tag-hears","tag-sycamore","tag-tree"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28412"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28414,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28412\/revisions\/28414"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}