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Court opens for sentencing hearing
Mark Brown
Officials at Newcastle crown court began letting people into court one at 10.45am for the sentencing.
There are a dozen journalists in the press benches and nearly a dozen more in seats normally used by the jury.
The public gallery too is packed.
Opening summary: Sycamore Gap pair face sentencing
Good morning and welcome to the Guardian’s coverage of the sentencing hearing for the Sycamore Gap tree felling case.
Former friends Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, are due to be sentenced on Tuesday after being convicted of criminal damage to the much-loved Sycamore Gap tree, which had stood for more than 100 years in a fold in the landscape.
They were also convicted of criminal damage to Hadrian’s Wall, caused when the sycamore fell on the ancient monument.
The maximum sentence for criminal damage is 10 years and aggravating factors include whether it was done to a heritage or cultural asset and evidence of wider impact on the community.
Mrs Justice Lambert will sentence the pair, who have been held in custody after their trial in May, at Newcastle crown court.
Below is a summary of the case up to this point:
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The pair used a chainsaw to cut down the cherished tree, next to Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland, as Storm Agnes raged in the early hours of 28 September 2023.
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Graham’s Range Rover was picked up on automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras between Carlisle and Sycamore Gap at night on 27 September 2023, and returning early the next morning. His mobile was traced to phone masts making the same journey.
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When police arrested the pair and searched Graham’s phone, they found a two-minute and 41-second video, which showed the sycamore being cut down at 12.30am on 28 September, and had been sent to Carruthers.
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They took a wedge from the tree as a trophy that has never been recovered and revelled in the media coverage, with messages and voice notes between Graham and Carruthers the next day showed them talking about the story going “wild” and “viral”.
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Richard Wright KC, prosecuting, told jurors the pair had engaged in a “moronic mission” to cut down the landmark, travelling for more than 40 minutes from their homes in Cumbria, then carrying their equipment across pitch black moorland during the storm back in September 2023.
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Graham and Carruthers were found guilty of criminal damage at a hearing on 9 May 2025. The jury took five hours to reach unanimous verdicts.
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When she remanded the pair, Lambert said they could face “a lengthy period in custody”.
