Pair who cut down Sycamore Gap tree jailed for ‘moronic mission’

LocalEnvironment
16 Jul 2025 • 4:12 AM MYT
The Independent
The Independent

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  • Two men, Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers, have been jailed for four years and three months each for felling Britain's iconic Sycamore Gap tree.
  • The much-loved sycamore, estimated to be almost 200 years old, stood beside Hadrian's Wall and featured in the film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
  • Graham, 39, and Carruthers, 32, were found guilty in June of deliberately cutting down the tree with a chainsaw in September 2023, in an act of vandalism described by the prosecution as a “moronic mission”.
  • Judge Christina Lambert stated the men acted out of "sheer bravado" when sentencing them for the act.
  • The felling also damaged part of Hadrian's Wall, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.