A PAIR of idiot pals who chopped down the iconic Sycamore Gap tree have been jailed.
Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, recorded themselves felling the tree with a chainsaw in the dead of night.
The duo undertook a “foolish endeavor” to cut down a tree, a fixture next to Hadrian’s Wall for over a hundred years, which they destroyed in merely two minutes and 41 seconds.
Graham and Carruthers were each found guilty of two counts of criminal damage at Newcastle Crown Court in May.
Appearing at the same court today, the pair were jailed for four years and three months.
The court heard the pair have now admitted that Carruthers cut down the tree while Graham filmed him.
Their sentencing also heard for the first time a possible motive for the felling of the tree.
Andrew Gurney, representing Carruthers, said he had made admissions in a pre-sentence report.
He said: “He does wish to cleanse his conscience of what he has done. People want to know ‘Why? Why did you conduct this mindless act?’
“Unfortunately, it is no more than drunken stupidity. He felled that tree and it is something he will regret for the rest of his life.
“There’s no better explanation than that.”
Richard Wright KC, prosecuting, said there had been a “high degree of planning and premeditation”.
He explained: “This venture involved substantial preparation, including securing a vehicle, traveling approximately 40 minutes to reach a parking location, bringing the necessary specialized tools, and carrying this equipment on a 20-minute walk each way.
“The felling was carried out in a deliberate, professional way.”
Newcastle Crown Court earlier heard how the pair of friends struck in September 2023.
Driving from Carlisle during the night amid a storm, the two proceeded to use a chainsaw to saw down “the world’s most iconic tree” under the cover of darkness.
It took the men just three minutes to destroy the tree which had been growing for more than 100 years.
The court heard how they took a wedge of the ancient tree with them as a “trophy.”
The act sent shockwaves through the country with Graham and Carruthers boasting to each other about going “viral.”
Video filmed by the pair shows one of them using a chainsaw to cut down the world famous tree which fell at around 12:30am.
The tree held global significance for its position on the old frontier of the Roman Empire.
The much-loved landmark stood next to Hadrian’s Wall and once appeared in the film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
Graham and Carruthers are said to have sent voice notes bragging about felling the more than a century old tree to one another.
But, while giving evidence the pair turned on each other in a desperate bid to save their own skin.
Graham had claimed that Carruthers phoned him the morning after the tree was felled to confess that it was him who hacked it down.
He went on to say that the dad-of-two previously spoke about felling the iconic landmark.
Graham also claimed Carruthers asked him to take the blame for the crime “because he had mental health issues” and would be treated more leniently.
Carruthers told jurors he was surprised by the public outcry as he thought it “was just a tree.”
He added: “I didn’t understand how a tree would be able to hit the headlines as much as it did.
“It was almost as if someone had been murdered.”
Graham, who ran a groundworks firm, and mechanic Carruthers, denied causing £622,191 worth of criminal damage to the tree and £1,144 worth of criminal damage to Hadrian’s Wall.
Both were found guilty by a jury after more than 5 hours of deliberation.
They were remanded in custody in May and warned that they could face significant jail terms.
Felling the world famous landmark was described as “the arboreal equivalent of mindless thuggery.”
