Sycamore Gap tree: Man pleads not guilty to cutting down famous tree – live

Daniel Graham, 38, and Adam Carruthers, 31, appeared at Newcastle Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.

Graham, of Milbeck Stables, Carlisle, entered pleas of not guilty, while Carruthers, of Church Street, Wigton, Cumbria, entered no pleas.

The pair are charged with criminal damage to property of a value over £5,000, namely “without lawful excuse, damaged a sycamore tree to the value of £622,191 belonging to the National Trust”.

They face a second charge of criminal damage to property valued under £5,000, namely Hadrian’s Wall, with the damage assessed to the Unesco World Heritage Site as being £1,144.

Both offences were alleged to have been committed on September 28 last year.

During the hearing, Rebecca Brown, prosecuting, said that the tree was “instantly recognisable”.

She said the cost of the damage to the tree was assessed using the Capital Asset Value for Amenity Trees (CAVAT) tool used by local authorities to work out the level of compensation needed to replace a tree.

Ms Brown said factors involved in the calculation involved the size of the tree, its type and the number of people who had access to it.

The lawyer said the loss of the tree had caused “serious distress”, as well as economic and social damage.

The case was “complex” and involved cell site analysis, number plate recognition technology, botany, evaluation of the tree and “image enhancement”, she said.

In case you missed this piece from March:

Shoots from the rescued seeds and twigs of the Sycamore Gap have sprung up in a secret National Trust laboratory, fuelling hopes the iconic tree will regrow after it was cut down with a chainsaw.

Scientists acted fast, grabbing young cuttings thrown to the ground when the tree fell before whisking them off to a high-security Devon greenhouse guarding genetic copies of the UK’s most precious plants.

Five months on in the lab which keeps its exact location shrouded in mystery, tiny shoots are regrowing with nine grafted plants and 50 seedling clones that could be used as back-up in case the stump doesn’t regrow naturally.

The criminal damage caused by felling the famous Sycamore Gap tree has been valued at more than £620,000, according to court charges.

The much-photographed tree, which stood next to Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland for 200 years, was chopped down in September last year, causing a national outrage.

Many paid tribute to the tree after it was felled, with one woman writing a poem to express her sadness as she described the tree as a “sentinel of time”.

Laura Charlton, said she wrote the poem, an Ode to a Sycamore Tree, to try to capture the “recklessness of the actions and the sense of bereavement the locals are feeling.”

“The birds sing their morning song/Wind dances through the leaves/Almost just as it once was/Yet Northumberland is bereaved,” it read.

The tree, believed to have been one of the most photographed in the country, used to sit in a gap along Hadrian’s Wall – a UNESCO World Heritage Site – in rural Northumberland and was a popular hotspot for tourists, walkers and others.

It is believed to have dated back to medieval times and has been excavated on two occasions – between 1908 and 1911 and again between 1982 and 1987, when Roman remains linked to Hadrian’s Wall were found.

The sycamore perhaps first became known around the globe after featuring in the film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, starring Kevin Costner, Morgan Freeman and Alan Rickman.

Daniel Graham, 38, (left)of Milbeck Stables, Carlisle, and Adam Carruthers, 31, of Church Street, Wigton, Cumbria, appeared in the dock at Newcastle Magistrates’ Court.

They are accused of causing £622,191 worth of damage to the much-photographed Sycamore Gap tree

During the hearing, Rebecca Brown, prosecuting, said that the tree was “instantly recognisable”.

She said the cost of the damage to the tree was assessed using the Capital Asset Value for Amenity Trees (CAVAT) tool used by local authorities to work out the level of compensation needed to replace a tree.

Ms Brown said factors involved in the calculation involved the size of the tree, its type and the number of people who had access to it.

The lawyer said the loss of the tree had caused “serious distress”, as well as economic and social damage.

The case was “complex” and involved cell site analysis, number plate recognition technology, botany, evaluation of the tree and “image enhancement”, she said.

A district judge said that the case of two men accused of felling the famous Sycamore Gap tree was so serious that it must be dealt with at the crown court.

Daniel Graham, 38, of Milbeck Stables, Carlisle, and Adam Carruthers, 31, of Church Street, Wigton, Cumbria, are accused of causing £622,191 worth of damage to the much-photographed tree.

They are also accused of causing £1,144 worth of damage to Hadrian’s Wall, a Unesco World Heritage Site, which was hit by the falling tree when it was felled overnight on September 28.

Both the tree and the wall were said to belong to the National Trust.

Graham entered pleas of not guilty, while Carruthers entered no plea.

District Judge Zoe Passfield declined jurisdiction, saying: “This case is too serious to be heard in the magistrates’ court.”

The pair will attend Newcastle Crown Court on June 12 for their next hearing and they were both granted unconditional bail in the meantime.