Sycamore Hole pair face sentencing over felling of historical tree – stay updates

The listening to has resumed and barristers representing Graham and Carruthers have opposed the appliance for handcuffs for use within the docks.

The decide has agreed and rejected the appliance.

Mark Brown

The courtroom has been cleared because the session is now in chambers.

This implies discussions are being held out of public view and there’s no entry for the press or public.

The pair felled the tree as Storm Agnes raged within the early hours of 28 September 2023. It had stood for greater than 100 years in a fold within the panorama.

Neither Graham nor Carruthers confirmed any seen emotion as responsible verdicts had been delivered at a listening to on 9 Might 2025. It took the jury 5 hours to achieve the unanimous verdicts.

The pair noticed it as a “bit of a laugh” and afterwards “revelled” of their infamy because the crime made headlines world wide, a jury was informed. They thought themselves “big or funny or clever”.

Graham and Carruthers had been convicted of prison injury to the tree and to Hadrian’s Wall, which had been broken when the sycamore fell on the traditional monument.

Remanding each males into custody, Mrs Justice Lambert stated on the listening to in Might that they might face “a lengthy period” in jail.

Mark Brown

The trial decide, Mrs Justice Lambert, got here briefly into court docket and informed prosecuting and defence barristers that there had been an utility for Graham and Carruthers to be introduced into court docket in handcuffs.

Attorneys representing each males have now left the courtroom in an effort to converse with their shoppers.

Courtroom opens for sentencing listening to

Mark Brown

Officers at Newcastle crown court docket started letting individuals into court docket one at 10.45am for the sentencing.

There are a dozen journalists within the press benches and practically a dozen extra in seats usually utilized by the jury.

The general public gallery too is packed.

Good morning and welcome to the Guardian’s protection of the sentencing listening to for the Sycamore Hole tree felling case.

Former mates Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, are as a result of be sentenced on Tuesday after being convicted of prison injury to the much-loved Sycamore Hole tree, which had stood for greater than 100 years in a fold within the panorama.

They had been additionally convicted of prison injury to Hadrian’s Wall, induced when the sycamore fell on the traditional monument.

The utmost sentence for prison injury is 10 years and aggravating components embody whether or not it was completed to a heritage or cultural asset and proof of wider affect on the neighborhood.

Mrs Justice Lambert will sentence the pair, who’ve been held in custody after their trial in Might, at Newcastle crown court docket.

Beneath is a abstract of the case up thus far:

• The pair used a chainsaw to chop down the cherished tree, subsequent to Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland, as Storm Agnes raged within the early hours of 28 September 2023.

• Graham’s Vary Rover was picked up on computerized quantity plate recognition (ANPR) cameras between Carlisle and Sycamore Hole at evening on 27 September 2023, and returning early the following morning. His cell was traced to telephone masts making the identical journey.

• When police arrested the pair and searched Graham’s telephone, they discovered a two-minute and 41-second video, which confirmed the sycamore being reduce down at 12.30am on 28 September, and had been despatched to Carruthers.

• They took a wedge from the tree as a trophy that has by no means been recovered and revelled within the media protection, with messages and voice notes between Graham and Carruthers the following day confirmed them speaking in regards to the story going “wild” and “viral”.

• Richard Wright KC, prosecuting, informed jurors the pair had engaged in a “moronic mission” to chop down the landmark, travelling for greater than 40 minutes from their houses in Cumbria, then carrying their gear throughout pitch black moorland through the storm again in September 2023.

• Graham and Carruthers had been discovered responsible of prison injury at a listening to on 9 Might 2025. The jury took 5 hours to achieve unanimous verdicts.

• When she remanded the pair, Lambert stated they might face “a lengthy period in custody”.