Dumb People Doing Dumb Things - Cutting a Tree Edition
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https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crm30yen1dlo
Two men accused of chopping down the famous Sycamore Gap tree kept a wedge as a trophy in a felling that prosecutors described as a "moronic mission".
The tree had stood for more than 100 years in a dip on Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland before it was felled overnight on 27 September 2023, Newcastle Crown Court heard.
Daniel Michael Graham, 39, from Carlisle, and Adam Carruthers, 32, from Wigton in Cumbria, each deny two counts of criminal damage relating to the tree and the Roman wall.and
On the night of 27 September, Mr Carruthers and Mr Graham had made a 40-minute drive in the latter's Range Rover from Cumbria to chop down the tree, the prosecutor said.
As one had cut it down using a technique known as hinge and wedge, the other had filmed the act of "deliberate mindless criminal damage" on Mr Graham's mobile phone, the court heard.
In the two minute and 41 second-long grainy video shown to jurors, a silhouetted figure can be seen appearing to cut at the base of a large tree which then falls over with a big crash.
Mr Wright said the person filming the "criminal" act was just as responsible as the person "wielding the chainsaw".
"Though the tree had grown for over a hundred years, the act of irreparably damaging it was the work of a matter of minutes," Mr Wright said.
It was a "moronic mission" that the pair had appeared to be "revelling in", the prosecutor said.
