Watch: Video shows the moment Sycamore Gap tree is chopped down

Footage of a person using a chainsaw on the tree was captured on a mobile phone

5 hours ago

Footage of the Sycamore Gap tree allegedly being chopped down has been released.

The video was taken on a mobile phone when the tree was felled in September 2023 and shows the outline of a figure by the trunk of the tree, before it crashed to the ground.

Two men accused of felling the historic tree appeared at Newcastle Crown Court, and have each denied two counts of criminal damage to the tree and to Hadrian’s Wall, Sky News reports.

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Mobile phone footage of the incident was shown to jurors, where the outline of individual can be seen and the sound of a chainsaw can be heard. The enhanced black and white version of the two minute and 40 second long video captures the moment the tree fell, before crashing onto Hadrian’s Wall.

Daniel Graham, 39, and mechanic Adam Carruthers, 32, are alleged to have committed the act by the prosecution, with “the technique that they used showing expertise and a determined, deliberate approach to the felling”.

Prosecutor Richard Wright KC explained how the footage was taken on the mobile phone of Daniel Graham, from whilst police analyst Amy Sutherland told jurors how the coordinates of where it was filmed were for Sycamore Gap.

The video was shown twice to the jury, once in its raw form and another time after it had been enhanced by a police specialist.

The Sycamore Gap tree was described as a “totemic” feature of Northumberland and the jury was told how it was “much loved by many thousands of people”.

The internet mourned the loss of the tree back in 2023, before a new sycamore tree was planted as part of a “Trees of Hope” initiative.

Francesca Eke | News