One of the two men accused of cutting down the Sycamore Gap tree couldn’t believe the public outcry over the tree’s felling, remarking that it was “just a tree”.
Adam Carruthers, 32, and Daniel Graham, 39, both deny two counts of criminal damage to the Northumberland sycamore and to nearby Hadrian’s Wall, which was damaged when the tree came down in September 2023.
Now in its second week, the trial at Newcastle Crown Court heard on Tuesday (6 May) how Mr Carruthers believed the reaction to the damage was “almost as if someone had been murdered”.
Prosecutors say Mr Carruthers and ground worker Mr Graham drove overnight from Carlisle to the Northumberland landmark during Storm Agnes in September 2023 and cut the tree down with a chainsaw.
Each of the men denies two counts of criminal damage to the sycamore and to Hadrian’s Wall, which was damaged when the tree fell on it.
Mr Carruthers was asked why he had shown so much interest in the story the day after the tree was cut down.
He said: “On the morning I woke up, I had looked online and it was all over Facebook. I was thinking, ‘What’s going on here?’ It was everywhere.
“My understanding was it was just a tree. I couldn’t understand why everyone was sharing it; every second post, it was about this tree. I just couldn’t get my head round it, the way it was travelling through the news. I was amazed how something so small could create so much publicity.”
Asked by his barrister Andrew Gurney why he and Mr Graham had been messaging each other about the story, Mr Carruthers said: “I couldn’t really understand why there was such a major [outcry] – it was almost as if someone had been murdered.
“Daniel was a friend of mine at the time. I sent it across. It was everywhere.”
Mr Carruthers said that in September 2023 he was staying with his partner of 10 years in Kirkbride, Cumbria, as she had just given birth to their daughter by caesarean section and needed help looking after their two children. He told jurors he was at home with his partner on the night that the tree was felled.
Asked why he had been messaging his partner if he was at home, he said she had been in her bedroom with the baby.
“To save walking in and have a conversation, waking the baby up, it was easier to send her a text message – it was quiet,” Mr Carruthers said.
He was asked about a message he sent to his partner that night after she sent him footage of their baby being bottle-fed, saying he had a “better video”. He said he had made a video of the roof of their washing shed being damaged in the storm, and was referring to that.
Mr Carruthers was also asked about a voicenote he sent to Mr Graham on 28 September 2023 in which he referred to “an operation like we did last night”.
He said: “I think it’s been interpreted wrong: it should be ‘launch an operation like what he did last night’. I’m referring to the person who done the job.
“It might sound as if I’m being sexist saying it’s a man, but I wouldn’t have thought it would have been a woman who done it.”
Mr Carruthers said he “had no idea” who was responsible for cutting down the tree, and that “nothing was ever mentioned to me that [Graham] had anything to do with it”.
Asked why his friendship with Mr Graham had ended, Mr Carruthers said his co-accused came to see him at work one night and told him: “I’m going to go my way and you’re going to go yours – I believe you have been grassing on me.”
Mr Gurney asked if Mr Carruthers had “grassed him up”, and the defendant said he had not.
He denied ever using a piece of string to measure the tree at Sycamore Gap, or asking his co-defendant to take the blame for felling it, as Mr Graham claimed during his evidence.
Asked if he had a fixation with the tree, Mr Carruthers said: “No, not at all.”
The trial continues.
