Sycamore Gap trial live: Park rangers ‘visibly upset and shocked’, says first police officer to see fallen tree – UK Times

Now a statement from PC Peter Borini is being read out by Rebecca Brown, junior counsel for the prosecution. He was the first police officer at the scene, the jury was told yesterday.

He said he was alerted to the incident on the morning of September 28 2023 after there were numerous social media posts about the tree having been cut down.

When he arrived there were members of the public there taking videos and park rangers “who were visibly upset and shocked at what they were witnessing”.

He noticed that the trunk was marked with silver spray.

It had fallen in a northerly direction across Hadrian’s Wall.

Pc Borini took footage using his body-worn camera of the scene and set up a cordon to preserve evidence.

A statement is now being read from Alice Whysall Price, who had started walking the length of Hadrian’s Wall two days earlier, arrived at Sycamore Gap at around 5.20pm on Wednesday September 27 2023.

She said the weather was windy and rainy with a storm coming.

Her statement reads: “Although I had visited the tree a number of times as a child, this was the first time I had visited it for a long time.”

Ms Whysall Price said she spoke briefly to two men who were walking in the opposite direction before continuing her walk eastwards to the tree, where she took some pictures and short videos of it.

She then carried on walking the short distance to the hostel at the village of Twice Brewed.

At Newcastle Crown Court, the second day of the trial of Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers, accused of cutting down the Sycamore Gap tree, has just started.

It beings with a statement from a walker who took a picture of the tree hours before it was felled.

Yesterday, after presenting the video allegedly showing the felling of the Sycamore Gap to the jury, prosecutor Richard Wright KC concluded: “In simple terms, Graham’s phone was right there at Sycamore Gap as the tree was being cut down, and his phone filmed the tree being cut down.

“The prosecution say whoever filmed the cutting down was as much responsible for the damage to the wall and the tree as the man wielding the chainsaw.

“They were in it together, and they were Carruthers and Graham.”

During yesterday’s opening of the case against Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers, prosecutor Richard Wright KC told the jury the pair were close friends when they allegedly chopped down the Sycamore Gap tree.

But as the police investigation ensued, with the pair were both questioned, Mr Wright said their friendship appeared to fall apart with both now appearing to blame each other.

Mr Wright said: “That once close friendship has seemingly completely unravelled, perhaps as the public revulsion at their behaviour became clear to them.

“As we understand the defences, Graham, denies that he was involved in any way. His car and his phone must have been used without his knowledge to make the journey and record the felling.

“He will say that Carruthers and another man are to blame and claim that Carruthers has admitted that to him.

“Carruthers on the other hand denies that he had anything at all to do with the felling of the tree and will maintain that he was not present when it was cut down.”

During yesterday’s opening, the jury was told by the prosecutor Richard Wright KC that the felling of the Sycamore Gap was recorded on Daniel Graham’s mobile phone.

Later in the hearing, a grainy video, which prosecution said showed the tree being felled, was played to the jurors.

It was a grainy video, lasting 2 minutes and 41 seconds, which showed the outline of a figure silhouetted against the stormy sky standing at the tree, which eventually creaks and falls.

Mr Wright said: “It was be a matter for you what you think this video shows.

“The prosecution suggest that the video was taken by someone holding the phone in their hand.

“It moves around and zooms in and out as the recording continues, and another person felling the tree.

Around half way through the video, the chainsaw quiets, Mr Wright said, and someone removed the wedge from the tree, before the machine starts up again and the sycamore falls.

“Two minutes and 41 seconds to cause that damage,” he said.

Prosecutor Richard Wright KC provided evidence to the jury of conversations between Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers after the Sycamore Gap tree was chopped down.

As the news broke, Mr Wright said they shared social media posts about it with each other, with Graham saying to Carruthers “here we go”.

Jurors were played a voice note from Carruthers to Graham saying: “Someone there has tagged like ITV News, BBC News, Sky News, like news, news, news. I think it’s gonna go wild.”

Another voice note from Graham to Carruthers said: “Jeffrey (a name Carruthers uses) it’s gone viral. It is worldwide. It will be on ITV news tonight.”

Mr Wright told jurors: “They are loving it, they’re revelling in it. This is the reaction of the people that did it. They still think it’s funny, or clever, or big.”

Daniel Graham, 39, of Milbeck Stables, Carlisle, and Adam Carruthers, 32, of Church Street, Wigton, Cumbria, are each charged with two counts each of criminal damage – one to the tree and one to the ancient Roman-built wall which is a Unesco World Heritage Site – on September 28 2023.

The value of the damage to the tree is worth £622,191, while to the wall it was £1,144.

At yesterday’s opening of the case, prosecutor Richard Wright KC laid out the Crown Prosecution Service’s evidence against Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers to the jury.

He pieced together a timeline of the alleged events that led to the felling of the Sycamore Gap tree, and what, he said, happened after it.

At Newcastle Crown Court, following the selection of a jury, the case was opened against Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers yesterday.

Prosecutor Richard Wright KC said: “For over a century, and until the evening of Wednesday 27 September 2023, a Sycamore tree had stood in the Northumberland National Park.

“The tree stood in a dip, next to Hadrian’s Wall, itself a UNESCO world heritage site. Over many years the tree, and its situation, became a famous site, reproduced countless times in photographs, feature films, and art.

“This tree, that was held high in the affections of so many members of the public had come to be known as the ‘Sycamore Gap’. By sunrise on Thursday 28 th September, the tree had been deliberately felled with a chainsaw in an act of deliberate and mindless criminal damage.

“It fell onto a section of Hadrian’s Wall, causing irreparable damage to the tree itself, and further damage to the wall.

“The prosecution say that two men are responsible for that mindless vandalism, the defendants Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers.”