Was ‘revenge’ the motive behind Sycamore Gap felling? Vandal had been accused of ‘destroying the countryside’ in planning dispute over his ramshackle caravan home

Two groundworkers have today been found guilty of cutting down Britain’s most famous tree. 

Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, face up to ten years in prison for felling the Sycamore Gap tree during a ‘moronic mission’ which lasted less than three minutes, and causing damage to Hadrian’s Wall in the process. 

Jurors found the pair guilty after their friendship degenerated and they tried to pin the blame on each other in court. The verdicts were delivered after five hours of deliberations.

And it can now be revealed the shocking plot to fell the tree was hatched as Graham was facing removal from his ramshackle home in the shadow of Hadrian’s Wall – branded a ‘shanty town’ by long-suffering neighbours.

Some locals in the remote rural area are convinced that the groundworker’s motive in targeting the iconic tree stems from his grievance with authority over his failure to secure planning approval for the eyesore he created in the unspoilt landscape.

Graham bought a small plot of farmland in Grinsdale Bridge near the Cumbrian village of Kirkandrews-on-Eden in 2015, the Telegraph reported.

There he quickly established a number of buildings on the property and gained planning permission for a stable block, horse shelter and storage units.

But locals complained when Graham moved into a caravan on the site shortly afterwards, using it as the base for his business, DM Graham Groundworks – which lists tree clearance among its services.

He developed the land – which he named Millbeck Stables – into a sprawling ‘shanty town’.

When neighbours complained about additional prefab buildings erected without planning permission, the noise of his dogs and the constant to-ing and fro-ing of the lorries he used in his groundwork business they were met with aggression.

A neighbour told the Telegraph that Graham had ‘completely destroyed the look and peace of this area’ and that ‘harsh words’ had been exchanged.

‘It was unbelievable that he managed to establish a home there on what had previously been a green field,’ they said.

Graham applied to Cumberland Council for permission to live there lawfully in October 2022 despite never having sought planning permission, the Sun reported.

But after neighbours objected and the local parish council said people felt threatened by his ‘dominant and oppressive behaviour’ it was rejected in April 2023 – leaving him facing eviction.

Just five months later, he and Carruthers chopped down the famous tree.

Now some locals believe the ‘moronic’ Sycamore Gap outrage was his bid for revenge on all those he felt had wronged him.

‘It’s what everyone around here was saying and it makes perfect sense,’ one told the Sun.

‘He considered that caravan his permanent home and had asked the council to legally recognise that.

‘When they refused the only way it could ever have ended for him was being evicted.

‘He’s a tree surgeon, he cuts trees down all the time – what better way, in his eyes, for him to take revenge?’

Meanwhile Graham appealed to the planning inspectorate in a bid to avoid eviction, but that was turned down on April 28, the day before his trial began.

He has six months to find somewhere else to live – however his immediate future is now behind bars.

A neighbour Grinsdale Bridge described Graham as a ‘sociopath and a bully.’I feel certain that he was the driving force behind what happened at Sycamore Gap because Adam doesn’t have the brains to plan such a thing,’ they added.

Even Graham’s grandmother, Joan, 86, was unable to muster a good word about her grandson.

‘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.’

Graham and Carruthers, both from Cumbria, drove for 30 miles through a storm, then filmed themselves cutting down the iconic landmark in the early hours of September 28, 2023. 

Carruthers then forwarded the video to his partner as they fled the scene.

The following morning, when news broke of the vandalism, the pair shared social media posts about the tree with Graham saying to Carruthers ‘here we go,’ as they ‘revelled’ in news reports about the crime.

Prosecutors said the friends thought it would be ‘a bit of a laugh’ – but realised they ‘weren’t the big men they thought they were’ when they saw the public outrage they had caused by committing ‘the arboreal equivalent of mindless thuggery’. 

Graham and Carruthers were found guilty of causing £622,191 of criminal damage to the tree and £1,144 of damage to Hadrian’s Wall, a Unesco World Heritage Site. 

Both defendants stared straight ahead and showed little emotion as the guilty verdicts were read to the court. Carruthers sat with hands clasped in front of him, while Graham lifted a hand to his face and stroked his beard.

The sycamore had stood for more than 100 years and achieved worldwide fame when it was featured in the 1991 Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman film, Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves. 

The trial heard that the police investigation into the damage included people who had issues with the National Trust, and even a young boy who reported his brother.

Opening the case to jurors, prosecutor Richard Wright KC said: ‘Though the tree had grown for over a hundred years, the act of irreparably damaging it was the work of a matter of minutes.’

Graham and Carruthers were ‘best of pals’ at the time and regularly worked together felling trees.

Graham’s Land Rover was picked up on automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras between Carlisle and Sycamore Gap at night on September 27 2023, and returning early the next morning. His phone was traced to cell sites making the same journey.

When police arrested the pair and searched Graham’s phone, they found a two minute and 41 second video which showed the sycamore being cut down at 12.30am on September 28, and had been sent to Carruthers.

They also found photos and videos of a wedge of tree trunk and a chainsaw in the boot of Graham’s Range Rover, although these have never been found.

Messages and voice notes between Graham and Carruthers the next day showed them talking about the story going ‘wild’ and ‘viral’, referring to ‘an operation like we did last night’ and joking that damage looked like it had been done by a professional.

A man named Kevin Hartness posted about the tree on Facebook, writing: ‘Some weak people that walk this earth; disgusting behaviour.’ 

Carruthers sent this post to Graham, and later sent a voice note in which he said: ‘I’d like to see Kevin Hartness launch an operation like we did last night… I don’t think he’s got the minerals.’ 

In August last year, Graham made an anonymous phone call to the police in an attempt to implicate his friend and save himself. 

Officers instantly recognised his voice as he told them that ‘one of the lads that [did] it, Adam Carruthers,’ had taken his chainsaws back home. 

The ‘anonymous caller’ said if police searched Carruthers’ home and workshop they would find the saws and part of the felled tree, along with a shotgun and a pistol. 

No firearms, chainsaws or the tree wedge were found, however. 

On December 1, 2024, days before the trial was originally scheduled to begin, Graham took to Facebook to accuse Carruthers of felling the tree, posting a series of images of his former friend. 

‘I truly would not do it,’ he wrote. 

‘It’s my picture everywhere. Well, here’s a picture of the man with [the] hidden face.’ 

In a tense exchange with Mr Wright during his cross examination, Graham tried to justify turning on his friend. 

He said Carruthers and an associate had tried to intimidate him into taking the blame for cutting down the tree, insisting that the criminal justice system would be lenient towards him due to his mental health issues. 

He added: ‘If someone is costing me money and affecting my business then I will f***ing grass. 

‘No doubt about it he [Carruthers] is the one holding the chainsaw. Adam felled the tree, I don’t know 100 per cent who the other person was. 

‘I was annoyed about my business suffering through his actions.’

To explain away number plate and phone site evidence against him, Graham insisted that Carruthers and an accomplice had taken his car, with his phone inside, and driven to the Sycamore Gap without his knowledge while he had been sleeping in his caravan. 

Carruthers, for his part, did not directly accuse Graham of being involved in felling the tree.

But he insisted that on the evening the tree was felled he had tried to take his partner and young children for a meal at the Metrocentre in Gateshead but turned back because their 11-day-old baby was unsettled.

Jurors rejected these flimsy alibis and found the pair unanimously guilty of causing criminal damage worth £622,191 to the tree and £1,144 worth of damage to Hadrian’s Wall, a Unesco world heritage site owned by the National Trust.

They now face up to ten years in prison.