By Tim Binnall
The trial of two men accused of cutting down an iconic British tree known as Sycamore Gap saw the revelation of damning details that put their claims of innocence in considerable doubt. The felling of the natural national landmark located along Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland sparked widespread condemnation when it occurred back in September of 2023. A subsequent police investigation into the incident led authorities to Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers, who were arrested in May of 2024 and charged with criminally damaging the beloved tree famously featured in the 1991 Kevin Costner film "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves."
At the start of their trial on Tuesday, prosecutor Richard Wright reportedly laid out the case against the men, which shockingly included a video of the infamous incident as it unfolded. While the three minutes of footage do not appear to show the faces of the perpetrators, it was recovered from Graham's phone. Shortly thereafter, Wright told the jury, Carruthers boastfully sent the video to his partner. "At the time of that text conversation," the prosecutor observed, "the only people in the world who knew that the tree had been felled were the men who had cut it down."
Additional incriminating insights from the phones of two men were subsequent conversations about the outcry that erupted once it was learned that the Sycamore Gap had been felled. "Here we go," Graham messaged Carruthers with his cohort later responding to an online critic of the crime by musing that they did not have the temerity to "launch an operation like we did last night." Arguing that the duo's guilt is clear, Wright lambasted the pair for their glee over the "mindless" crime.
In what may be a preview of the pair's defense, which is set to be put forward on Wednesday, Wright suggested that each man may wind up blaming the other as their "once close friendship has seemingly completely unraveled" possibly due to the profoundly villainous light in which they are now seen. Whether that turns out to be the case will become apparent as the trial progresses, though one is left to wonder why the pair opted to fight the charges in the first place considering the evidence against them.