LONDON (AP) — Two men were convicted Friday of cutting down the beloved Sycamore Gap tree in northern England in 2023 in an unexplained act of vandalism that caused widespread outrage.
A Newcastle Crown Court jury found Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers guilty of two counts each of criminal damage for felling the tree and toppling it onto the ancient Hadrian’s Wall.
The tree was not Britain’s biggest or oldest, 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 been known to locals but received international attention in Kevin Costner’s 1991 film “Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves.” It drew tourists, lovers, landscape photographers and even those who spread the ashes of loved ones.
“For 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. “In just under three minutes, Graham and Carruthers ended its historic legacy in a deliberate and mindless act of destruction.”
Jurors deliberated about four hours on Thursday and reached a verdict after meeting less than 30 minutes Friday morning.
Neither defendant 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 “a lengthy period in custody.” The maximum sentence for criminal damage is 10 years in prison.
The defendants, once close friends, both testified that they had nothing to do with cutting down the tree. Graham pointed the finger at Carruthers.
Prosecutors showed grainy video from Graham’s phone of the tree being cut down — a video sent shortly afterward to Carruthers’ phone. Metadata showed it was taken at the tree’s location in Northumberland National Park. Data showed Graham’s Range Rover had traveled there.
Prosecutor Richard Wright said he couldn’t say who cut the tree and who held the phone, but the two men were the only people in the world who had the video on their devices.
The following day, Carruthers and Graham exchanged text and voice messages that captured their excitement as the story went viral.
Prosecutors offered no evidence of a motive for the crime other than calling it senseless vandalism. But Wright suggested to jurors in his closing argument that the men cut the tree down for “a bit of a laugh” but had failed to realize the anger they would spark in the “arboreal equivalent of mindless thuggery.”
“They woke up the morning after and soon realized — as the news media rolled in, as the outrage of the public became clear — it must have dawned on them that they couldn’t see anyone else smiling,” Wright said. “Far from being the big men they thought they were, everyone else thought that they were rather pathetic.”
Prosecutors originally said the tree was 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 fall in the top category of harm for sentencing purposes.
