Carruthers denies criminal damage to the famous tree in Northumberland worth £622,191. Graham, his alleged partner in the crime that shocked the world, claims that Carruthers did it with a friend
One of the men accused of felling the Sycamore Gap was shocked to see coverage of the crime as it was ‘just a tree’, he told a court today. Adam Carruthers and Daniel Graham deny going on a ‘moronic mission’ to cut down the world famous tree on September 27, 2023.
Both Carruthers and Graham stand accused of criminal damage worth £622,191. Graham, his alleged partner in the crime that shocked the world, claims that Carruthers cut the iconic plant down with a friend, and not him. Giving evidence for the first time today, dad-of-two Carruthers said he woke on the morning that Sycamore Gap was found chopped down and looked at his phone.
He said: “I woke up, looked online it was all over Facebook, you know what I mean, it was everywhere, every second post was about this tree and I just could not get my head around it, the way it was travelling through the news, I was amazed that something so small could get so much publicity.
“It was a tree at the end of the day, it was just a tree and I did not understand how a tree would get the headlines as much as it did.”
He went on: “Every article was about the tree, I could not understand why there was such a major outbreak, it was like someone had been murdered, so I took a screenshot and sent it across (to Graham)”
The jury at Newcastle crown court heard that Carruthers sent his girlfriend Amy Connor a message as he and Graham allegedly made their way back from chopping down the Sycamore Gap tree in the early hours of Sept 28, 2023.
The jury heard that at about 01.30am, Carruthers was sent a video from Amy of their 12-day-old baby daughter being bottle-fed, to which he replied: “I’ve got a better video than that.” She responded “I bet”, to which Mr Carruthers replied with kisses and the message “you know the score”.
The video was then sent to his phone by Graham’s phone, the court heard. Prosecutor Richard Wright KC said he now had his own record of this “heroic act he has just committed”.
In evidence today, Carruthers claimed that he had been sending a video to his wife from an outhouse housing their washing machine at their home near Wigton, Cumbria, as she was bed bound following a Caeserian section.
Graham claimed Carruthers had borrowed his vehicle and his phone on the night the tree was felled.
Graham told the jury that Carruthers had kept a piece of string which he said had been used to measure its circumference.
Carruthers denied ever having the string, and telling Graham about it.
Graham also named Carruthers as the man responsible in an anonymous 101 call to police.
The jury was shown the image of the saw and the tree trunk, taken in the back of Graham’s Range Rover in the early hours of September 28. Graham said that Carruthers and one of his friends, Lindsay Dalgleish (c), had asked him to ‘take the blame’ for the crime.
Checks on Graham’s phone had confirmed that he had made the anonymous 101 call to police. In the call, made by Graham on August 23, 2024, he told the police: “I am just reporting anonymously about Sycamore Gap.
“One of the lads who did is Adam Carruthers. He still has the saws in his possession. The saws are back on his premises.
“They had been held by another man by the name of Lyndsay Dagleish. They had been held in Annan, Scotland.”
The call operator asks if Graham would be prepared to leave his mobile address but he declines to do so, and says he will call back if he has any further information.
He then goes on to state in the call that Carruthers had firearms which he kept at an address in Kirkbride, Cumbria, the court heard.
A check on the phone records of Graham showed details of the call, which ended at exactly the same time as that on the records, the court heard.
Graham is heard telling the operator: “At Kirkbride, he has a firearm there in the workshop. It is where he works on cars and there are shotgun shells for 2.2mm bullets and 9mm bullets.
“He has keys for the whole site. He has access and there will be CCTV.”
The mention of firearms meant that the incident would have to be escalated and responded to, the court heard.
The trial continues.