THIS is the shocking moment when the celebrated Sycamore Gap tree was chopped down in a “mindless”; act of vandalism.
The grainy mobile phone footage shows a man at the foot of the 49ft-high tree as a chainsaw can clearly be heard.
After two minutes and 41 seconds the sycamore – which was planted in the 1800s – was felled and toppled onto Hadrian’s Wall, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The video was shot at night on a phone belonging to Daniel Graham, 39, whose had been caught on CCTV driving towards the tree, the jury has been told.
He and his friend Adam Carruthers, 32, are accused of chopping down the tree around 12.30am on Thursday, September 28, 2023 – one using the chainsaw while the other filmed it.
A short time later Carruthers sent the damning video to his girlfriend, it was said.
Prosecutor Richard Wright KC said: “Having completed their moronic mission, the pair got into the Range Rover and travelled back towards Carlisle.
“During that return journey Carruthers received a video of his young child from his partner.
“He replied: ‘I’ve got a better video than that’. Minutes later the video of the felling of the tree was sent from Graham’s phone to Carruthers’ phone.
“At the time of that text conversation the only people in the entire world who knew that the tree had been felled were the men who had cut it down.
“The only people who had access to the video were the men who had filmed themselves in the act of cutting down the tree; the defendants Graham and Carruthers.”;
The jury was also shown bodycam footage from PC Peter Borini, the Northumberland officer who was the first cop at the scene.
He was seen asking members of the public to step away from the sycamore – used as a location in the 1991 movie Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves starring Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman – so he could set up a cordon.
The officer then took samples of sawdust for the ground and of bark which had silver spray paint on it.
Carruthers and Graham are accused of using spray paint to mark the trunk to expertly fell it.
PC Borini searched the area for the wedge cut out of the tree to ensure it fell in a particular direction but was unable to find it.
Mr Wright said: “That is because it was taken away from the scene by the defendants, in Graham’s Range Rover.
“Perhaps as some sort of trophy or reminder of their otherwise senseless act.”;
Tony Wilmott, a senior archaeologist for Historic , who investigated the damage to the wall said the spot first became known as Sycamore Gap in the 1980s.
The site was hugely popular and became a place for marriage proposals and the spreading of ashes by loved ones, he said in a statement read to .
Mr Wilmott added: “The place is much loved by many thousands of people.”;
The last known photo of the tree while it was still standing was also shown to the jury at crown court.
Alice Whysall Price was walking Hadrian’s Wall from east to west when she reached Sycamore Gap at around 5.20pm on September 27, 2023.
She said: “Although I had visited the tree a number of times as a child and often passed by when travelling, this was the first time I had visited for a long time.”;
After taking some pictures and videos of the tree she walked to the nearby Twice Brewed Inn where she was staying.
A few hours later the pub’s CCTV caught a car driving to the car park near the tree which the prosecution allege was the two defendants’ travelling in Graham’s Range Rover.
Graham, of Carlisle, who ran a groundworks firm, and mechanic Carruthers, of Wigton, both , deny causing £622,191 worth of criminal damage to the tree and £1,144 worth of criminal damage to Hadrian’s Wall, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The trial continues.
