LONDON (AP) 鈥 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鈥檚 favorite trees.
Daniel Graham sent a message to his buddy, Adam Carruthers, telling him to 鈥済et the saws warmed up,鈥 suggesting they might get some work clearing fallen trees.
But it wasn鈥檛 high winds that brought down the famous that night, jurors determined Friday. It was Graham and Carruthers 鈥 not cleaning up damage from the storm, but creating a mess of their own.
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鈥檚 demise went viral.
Crime caught in the act
The prime piece of evidence was a on Graham鈥檚 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鈥檚 location in Northumberland National Park. Other data showed Graham鈥檚 Range Rover had traveled there.
The Sycamore Gap tree was not Britain鈥檚 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鈥檚 1991 film 鈥淩obin Hood: Prince Of Thieves.鈥 It drew tourists, lovers, landscape photographers and even those who spread the ashes of loved ones.
鈥淔or 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. 鈥淚n just under three minutes, Graham and Carruthers ended its historic legacy in a deliberate and mindless act of destruction.鈥
Convicts could face 鈥榣engthy鈥 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 鈥渁 lengthy period in custody.鈥 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 鈥渏ust a tree,鈥 saying it was 鈥渁lmost as if someone had been murdered.鈥 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鈥檛 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鈥檚 vehicle was tracked on its way back toward his home in Carlisle 鈥 about 40 minutes away 鈥 Carruthers received a video from his partner of their infant and replied, 鈥淚鈥檝e got a better video than that,鈥 Wright said.
鈥淎t 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,鈥 Wright said. 鈥淎nd 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.鈥
Missing: one chainsaw and a 鈥榯rophy鈥 wedge of wood
The next day, the two feverishly exchanged messages after the tree was discovered.
鈥淚t鈥檚 gone viral. It is worldwide,鈥 Graham said.
Carruthers forwarded a Facebook comment by a man who criticized the 鈥渄isgusting behavior鈥 of the 鈥渨eak鈥 vandals.
Carruthers said he鈥檇 like to see the man 鈥渓aunch an operation like we did last night.鈥
Wright said police never located the chainsaw used to fell the tree, but each man had access to plenty of saws 鈥 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鈥檚 phone showed a slice of wood and a chainsaw in the back of his vehicle at his home. A forensic botanist said there was 鈥渧ery strong evidence鈥 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 that the men cut the tree down for 鈥渁 bit of a laugh鈥 but had failed to realize the anger they would spark in the 鈥渁rboreal equivalent of mindless thuggery.鈥
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.
