One of two former friends on trial for cutting down the Sycamore Gap tree had a “fascination” with it and thought it would make a good trophy, Newcastle Crown Court has heard.
Prosecutor Richard Wright KC put it to Daniel Graham that Adam Carruthers had a “strange interest” in the tree.
Mr Wright said: “He talked about it in the sense of it would be a good trophy.” Graham replied: “I suppose so, yeah.”
Graham told the court the other man asked him to take the blame because his mental-health issues would ensure he was treated leniently.
He also said Carruthers had rung him the morning after the tree was felled and claimed to be responsible.
On the fourth day of the trial, he said his co-accused had spoken of wanting to cut down the tree beside Hadrian’s Wall and ordering a chainsaw he said was “big enough” for the job.
Graham, 39, and Carruthers, 32, each deny two counts of criminal damage to the Northumberland sycamore and to the Roman Wall during Storm Agnes in September 2023.
The trial was adjourned until Tuesday.
Key Points
- Friends asked me to take the blame, says suspect 'with mental-health issues'
- Co-accused thought tree would be good trophy, court hears
- Suspect says Carruthers admitted chopping down tree
- Co-accused 'ordered chainsaw and said it was big enough for tree'
- Suspect reported friend to police, jury told
Pictured: Accused working together
16:13 , Jane DaltonCarruthers and Graham are seen working together in a photo issued by the Crown Prosecution Service:
Graham 'admired angle of stump'
16:10Prosecutor Richard Wright KC asked Daniel Graham about a message he sent to Adam Carruthers saying: “Not a bad angle on that stump, must be a professional.”
Mr Wright said: “That was you bragging to him – haven’t we done a good job.”
Graham said: “It’s not bragging, it’s a fact. That’s not me saying, oh look, I’ve done a f****** good job on that stump.”
The trial at Newcastle Crown Court was adjourned until Tuesday.
Pictured: Carruthers on farm
15:41 , Jane DaltonThe Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) issued a photo of Adam Carruthers holding two owls.
Graham told the court that in a meeting with police, he was shown photos of Carruthers holding two owls, with chainsaws in the background.
Carruthers thought tree would be good trophy, court hears
15:23 , Jane DaltonDaniel Graham agreed with prosecutor Richard Wright KC that Adam Carruthers had a “fascination” with and “strange interest” in the Sycamore Gap tree, Newcastle Crown Court heard.
Mr Wright said: “He talked about it in the sense of it would be a good trophy.” Graham replied: “I suppose so, yeah.”
Graham said he knew nothing about the tree until Carruthers told him about it in 2021.
Mr Wright asked if that was a lie, as he had reported a car being stolen from the Steel Rigg car park – used by visitors to Sycamore Gap – in 2020.
Graham said: “Just because I know about the car park doesn’t mean I know about the tree.”
Asked if he had watched the film featuring the tree, Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves, he replied: “I’ve watched Robin Hood but it doesn’t mean I know where that tree is.
“The first time this legendary tree was mentioned to me was in 2021. I wasn’t interested in it. I cut trees down, I don’t collect them.”
Storm wind direction made cutting tree down easier, says prosecutor
15:16 , Jane DaltonBeing cross-examined by prosecutor Richard Wright KC, Daniel Graham agreed it was Adam Carruthers that cut down the Sycamore Gap tree but denied being the “second man in the team”.
Mr Wright said: “The reason it was your car and your phone and your yard (where the picture of the chainsaw and wedge of tree trunk was taken) was because you were party to that plan.”
Graham said: “It was my yard because my vehicle was being returned to my yard.”
Mr Wright said a storm on the night the tree was cut down meant the tree was blowing from south to north and “if someone was looking for a night to cut down the Sycamore Gap tree, that would be a good night to do it because the wind blowing that way makes it easier”.
Graham 'wishes he identified co-accused at start'
15:13 , Jane DaltonDaniel Graham said his account had not changed but said he wished he had named co-accused Adam Carruthers from the start.
Speaking about the cross-examination by Andrew Gurney, for Carruthers, Graham said: “I don’t feel like he is asking questions, he is wanting an argument.”
Friends split up after one bought the other a milkshake
14:59 , Jane DaltonDaniel Graham described going to visit Adam Carruthers, and as he usually did, he brought him a milkshake.
But after that gesture, he told him they were no longer friends and “I’m going my way and he will go his way”.
He added: “That’s the last time I spoke to Adam.”
Mr Gurney said Graham’s assertion that Carruthers and a friend had tried to get him to take the blame as he would be dealt with leniently owing to his mental health issues “did not happen”. Graham said there were two conversations to that end, one of which his partner overheard on the phone.
Mr Gurney claimed it was a “work of fiction” to suggest Graham had gone to bed on the night the tree was felled, and that someone else used his car and phone. Graham said he was in bed that night as he was tired having worked at a caravan site in Silloth during the day.
Mr Gurney suggested the account about Carruthers having a piece of string to measure the circumference of the tree was a fabrication.
Graham replied: “It seems to me that (you say) everything that comes out of my mouth is a fabrication. I know it happened.”
Graham denies making account 'fit evidence'
14:41 , Jane DaltonDaniel Graham, cross-examined by Andrew Gurney for Adam Carruthers at Newcastle Crown Court, denied making his account fit the evidence.
He said the pair had been friends for three years and that they split the cash they made from felling trees 50-50.
Mr Gurney asked at what point did Graham decide to “turn on” his friend.
Graham replied: “When my business started to suffer, when I had to take my name off the wagons, take my name off the machinery, because I couldn’t leave my vehicles by the roadside.”
Graham admits he made anonymous police call identifying friend
14:40 , Jane DaltonAsked about saying he did not want to be a “grass” in his police interview, Daniel Graham said: “I didn’t think I was going to have to get to the stage where I was going to have to say [Adam Carruthers’] name. I didn’t want to do it.”
He confirmed he was the person who called police anonymously last year to name Carruthers as being responsible for the tree felling and claiming to know where the chainsaw used and the wedge from the trunk were being hidden.
He said: “Nothing had been done. If the farm had been searched correctly, even months after, then the evidence would have been found.”
Graham said he had not seen the saw or the wedge, but that Carruthers had told him where they were.
He told the court: “It’s my name all the time, my name before Adam’s. It was always my name associated with it first.
“My name is associated with my business and I started to have people phoning my business giving me abuse about the tree.”
Suspect says police failed to search farm correctly
14:37Daniel Graham told the court he was not legally represented when he was first interviewed by police, explaining: “I didn’t believe I needed one.”
Asked by Chris Knox, defending, why he felt like that, Graham replied: “I haven’t done owt wrong.”
In his first interview he denied knowing what had happened that night and he explained to the court he did not say more, telling jurors: “At the time he (Adam Carruthers) was me pal.”
He told the court that in a meeting with Detective Inspector Calum Meikle he showed him photos of Carruthers holding two owls, with chainsaws in the background.
Graham said he did that to show to the police that “they hadn’t done their job properly”.
He added: “They hadn’t searched the farm correct.”
Friends asked me to take the blame, says Graham
13:49 , Jane DaltonDaniel Graham said Adam Carruthers and a friend called Lindsay Dalgleish came to his home and stood on his driveway.
Asked what they discussed, Graham said: “If it gets on top, would I take the blame because I have mental health issues. Apparently they would be more lenient with me.”
Graham said he was not keen to take the blame and said no.
Chris Knox, defending, asked: “What was their reaction?”
Graham replied: “They tried to goad us on (saying) ‘Nowt will happen to you, you will get away with it’.”
He said the tone was serious, not jokey. He said the conversation happened after the pair had been released and interviewed by police.
The trial broke for lunch.
Suspect accuses friend of felling tree
13:47 , Jane DaltonChris Knox, defending, said clearly two people had been involved on the night – one person cutting down the tree and one filming.
Graham said he did not discuss with Carruthers who the other person was.
“Adam felled the tree, I don’t know 100% who the other person was,” Graham said from the witness box.
Friend 'ordered chainsaw and said it was big enough for tree'
13:44 , Jane DaltonDaniel Graham said co-accused Adam Carruthers had spoken of wanting to cut down the tree.
“He mentioned it,” he told the court. “He mentioned a lot of things, I didn’t take it seriously.”
Graham said he remembered Carruthers ordering a big bar chainsaw and saying it was big enough to cover the circumference of the Sycamore Gap tree.
I didn't know of tree in 2021, says Graham
13:36 , Jane DaltonGraham said that in 2021 Carruthers had mentioned the Sycamore Gap tree while they worked on his father’s Land Rover.
Graham said he wanted to use a piece of string on the job, but Carruthers said he could not as it was “sentimental”.
“He laid this string on the floor, put it in a big circle, that was the circumference of the Sycamore Gap tree.
“At the time I didn’t know of the tree.”
Chris Know, defending, asked: “Did he explain any more?”
Graham replied: “He told me, it was the most famous tree in the world.”
The defendant explained Carruthers had used the string to measure the tree’s circumference.
Graham says he had no idea who was driving Range Rover on night of tree felling
13:20 , Alex RossDaniel Graham has told the court he had no idea that the Range Rover was being driven on the night the tree was felled.
He tells the jury other people were able to use his iPhone, including if people who worked for him did not have data, they would be allowed to connect to the internet via a hot spot.
The prosecution say that on Graham’s iPhone, video was discovered that showed the Sycamore Gap tree being chopped down.
Suspect says co-accused admitted chopping down tree
13:08 , Alex RossSuspect Daniel Graham has just told the court that his co-accused Adam Carruthers rang him the morning after the tree had been cut down, claiming to be the one responsible.
Graham said he spotted his Range Rover - which the prosecution said was used by the pair to get to Sycamore Gap - had been moved the morning after the tree came down.
Asked about a call Carruthers made to him that morning, Graham said: “It was Adam claiming he had cut down the Sycamore Gap tree, claiming that it was him that cut it down.
“I told him he was talking sh*te, I didn’t believe it.”
Suspect says he and co-accused were 'best of pals' at time of Sycamore Gap felling
12:58 , Alex RossDaniel Graham says he and co-accused Adam Carruthers were “best of pals” in September 2023.
He says Carruthers had “done him a good turn” by getting his father’s Land Rover fixed and ready for his funeral.
Asked by his barrister Chris Knox if he would have any hesitation lending Carruthers his Range Rover, Graham says: “I would have lent him owt, anything.”
Asked whether Carruthers had asked to borrow the Range Rover on this occasion, Graham replies: “Adam wouldn’t need to ask to borrow anything of mine. He was welcome to it.”
Graham says he would sometimes fell trees as part of his groundwork business, but would also get separate requests for tree work, which he and Carruthers did together
He tells the court Carruthers worked at a company called Cumbria Turf.
Suspect names three men who would borrow his Range Rover
12:56 , Alex RossDaniel Graham is now asked about his Range Rover, which the prosecution claim was used by him and co-accused Adam Carruthers to travel from Carlisle to Sycamore Gap on the night the tree was felled.
Pictures have also been shown to the jury of a wedge of tree and a chainsaw, the prosecution say, were taken in the car boot.
Graham tells the court he allowed other people to use his Range Rover, saying he kept the keys for it in the ignition or behind the sun visor, as it had no sentimental value, was around 15 years old at the time and had done 150,000 miles.
He names three men who would borrow the vehicle, explaining how two of them had needed a temporary replacement after experiencing problems with their own cars.
Chris Knox, defending, asking if he used the Range Rover much himself.
Graham said: “Very rare, normally I’m in a wagon.”
Suspect Daniel Graham takes to the stand to give evidence
12:53 , Alex RossStarting his evidence, Daniel Graham says: “No I did not,” when asked if he had anything to do with cutting down the Sycamore Gap tree, or damaging Hadrian’s Wall.
He gives the same response when asked by his barrister Chris Knox whether he had any idea it was going to happen, or participated in any way, including by watching.
When asked if he knew how his Range Rover and mobile phone were at Sycamore Gap on the night it was felled, Graham says: “I know who was driving my car.”
He adds that the Range Rover had been in the yard of his property that night, and his mobile phone was in the vehicle.
No evidence suspect lent his Range Rover to other people, jury told
12:49 , Alex RossWe heard yesterday in the police interviews read to the jury that suspect Daniel Graham said his Range Rover was available for other people to use for work.
The prosecution say the Range Rover was used by Graham and Adam Carruthers to drive to the Sycamore Gap.
Detective Inspector Calum Meikle, the officer in charge of the case, is asked by Mr, representing Carruthers, if he had found any evidence to support Daniel Graham’s claim that he lent his vehicles to other people. He replies: “None whatsoever.”
Asked if he had found anything on Graham’s mobile phone to suggest anyone else had used it, Mr Meikle says: “No.”
'One of the lads that done it, Adam Carruthers' - jury hear anonymous call
12:45 , Alex RossThe call, played to the jury, hears how the caller declined to give his name or number and when asked what the call was about replied: “Sycamore Gap.”
When asked what the information was, he replied: “One of the lads that done it, Adam Carruthers, has got the saws back in his possession.
“They were being held by another male by the name of Lindsay Dalgleish. They were being held in Annan.”
The caller said two of the saws were now in Wigton, at the home of Carruthers’ mother.
He added that Mr Dalgleish had another eight saws “and they have the same oil in them” as the one used to cut down the tree.
He added that “a part of a tree” was being kept with the saws.
Suspect reported friend to police, jury told
12:43 , Alex RossThe jury has been hearing from Andrew Gurney, who is defending for one of the suspects, Adam Carruthers.
He has played a 10-minute call to the jury that was made to police in August last year.
The male caller, identified by Detective Inspector Calum Meikle as suspect Daniel Graham, named Carruthers as being responsible for the crime.
