Video footage allegedly showing the chopping down of the famous Sycamore Gap tree has been played to a jury.
The footage was taken on the mobile phone of Daniel Graham, said prosecutor Richard Wright KC, and shows the outline of a figure silhouetted against the stormy sky standing at the tree, which eventually creaks and falls.
Mr Wright said the grainy video was filmed at 12.31am on September 28, and the metadata showed the coordinates were for Sycamore Gap.
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He told the jury at Newcastle Crown Court that halfway through the video, the chainsaw quiets then someone removes the wedge from the tree before the machine starts up again and the sycamore falls.
Graham, 39, from Carlisle, and Adam Carruthers, 32, from Wigton in Cumbria, are both charged with two counts of criminal damage relating to the tree and a section of Hadrian’s Wall it fell on on the night of 27 September, 2023.
They both deny the charges.
Mr Wright told the jury at their trial on Tuesday: “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.”
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