Daniel Graham was convicted of cutting down the Sycamore Gap tree – but the yob was already embroiled in a bitter family feud which has left him with no home to go to
Daniel Graham, who is found guilty alongside Adam Carruthers for cutting down the iconic Sycamore Gap tree, is caught up in a bitter family row.
The news that shocked the nation left people in disgust over the act and the pair have been convicted of two counts of criminal damage. The famous tree had been growing in a dip on Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland for more than 100 years before it was savagely cut down by Graham and Carruthers.
The pair could face up to 10 years in prison for the destruction of the landmark. However, when Graham is released from prison, he won’t have a home to return to. A decision made shortly before his trial saw Cumberland council decree his eviction from the land he used to call home.
Adding to Graham’s woes, his family turned their backs on him and he was embroiled in a fierce argument with his paternal grandmother, Joan Graham at his father’s funeral.
In response to his charges, his grandmother Joan, 86, did not have a good word for him. “He hasn’t been part of my life for a few years and I’m happy for it to stay that way,” she said. “I don’t think he’ll cope well in jail but that’s his own fault.”
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She recounted their last exchange: “The last words he spoke to me were about this time last year. I was crossing the road on a pedestrian crossing and he pipped his horn and I looked up and he shouted ‘Hey, you, f**k off’. He started carrying on and shouted at me at my son’s funeral and I haven’t spoken about him properly since. I think he will be scared of going to jail. “
The yob confessed to being a “man with no friends” – his only visitor outside of work was his on-off girlfriend, Lisa Brown, whom he constantly referred to as his “bird”. He led a solitary life in a caravan next to the ramshackle huts used for storing equipment for his groundwork business at Millbeck Bridge, near Carlisle Cumbria.
The bitter family feud resulted in Graham, an avid horseman, living alone at the secluded property for years. He was raised on Carlisle’s Harraby estate and had lived with his parents Karen and Michael.
A previous neighbour revealed: “Dan loved horses and he had his own carriage which he used to hire out for brides on their wedding day. It was his pride and joy and he kept it in pristine condition. I can’t speak badly of him, he was good to his neighbours and used to take the kids around the block in his carriage.
“It was a shock when I heard he’d been accused of cutting down that tree, it’s so senseless and doesn’t square with the lad we knew when he lived in Harraby. He was close to his dad and took it hard when he lost him. He just seemed to lose his way.”
It’s claimed that Graham had a grudge against authorities who rejected his bid to live near Hadrian’s Wall. He had made an application for a ‘Lawful Development Certificate’ in 2022. The ground worker had taken up residence in a caravan next to his stables at Millbeck Stables on the edge of Carlisle, Cumbria, within Hadrian’s Wall’s UNESCO World Heritage site ‘buffer zone’.
Residents and planning officials from Beaumont Parish Council, a remote Cumbrian rural community, told how they felt threatened by Graham’s ‘dominant and oppressive behaviour’. The council rejected his retrospective bid to live on the site of his Millbeck Stables and warned he faced eviction.
In a ‘decision and reasons report’, Graham was told that the application was ‘far beyond a replacement dwelling’ as he had claimed. One of the reasons for objecting to his plans was because of its proximity to Hadrian’s Wall.
When he was charged with felling the tree, a neighbour told of his grudge against the authorities. “When he was refused permission to live there, many people thought he said ‘right, I will show them’,” said one woman, who declined to be named.
“They thought that could have motivated him to do it. His site grew and grew, there were big lorries going back and forth all the time.
“He built a mound to hide what was going on there. When we saw all the police vehicles there, after the tree was felled, we initially thought it was to do with the hunt for a missing person. Later, it became apparent that he had been questioned over the tree.”
She added: “His behaviour did not change once he was arrested. He still had people going back and forth at all hours of the day and night.”
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