Two former friends who mounted a “moronic mission” to cut down the world-famous Sycamore Gap tree in an act of “deliberate and mindless criminal damage”, face jail. Mindless Daniel Graham and his accomplice Adam Carruthers drove through a ferocious storm for 30 miles in the middle of the night from their homes in Cumbria to attack the Northumberland landmark.

Under cover of moonlit the crazed pair destroyed the historic tree , with one of them cutting it down using a chainsaw whilst the other filmed it on a mobile phone. Newcastle Crown Court heard the pair then kept a wedge of the trunk as a trophy and spent the next day “revelling” in news reports about their criminality. Prosecutors said the “odd couple” who did everything together had thought it would be “a bit of a laugh”, but realised they “weren’t the big men they thought they were” when they saw the public outrage they had caused by committing “the arboreal equivalent of mindless thuggery”.

Today groundworker Graham, 39, and mechanic Carruthers, 32, were each found guilty of two counts of criminal damage – one to the much-photographed tree and and one to Hadrian’s Wall, which was damaged when the sycamore fell on it.

There was little reaction from either in the dock as the jury returned after just over five hours to convict them of causing £622,191 of criminal damage to the tree and £1,144 of damage to the wall.

As the defendants were led to the cells, Lindsay Dalgleish, a car dealer who Graham implicated in the crime, shouted towards the dock: "I will see you when you're out big man."

The trial heard the “totemic” sycamore had stood for more than 100 years in a dramatic dip in Hadrian’s Wall, becoming a popular spot for everything from picnics to proposals – and achieving worldwide fame when it was featured in the 1991 Kevin Costner film Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves.

Opening the case to jurors, prosecutor Richard Wright KC said: “Though the tree had grown for over a hundred years, the act of irreparably damaging it was the work of a matter of minutes.”

Jurors heard Graham and Carruthers were “best of pals” at the time and regularly worked together felling trees.

The court heard Graham’s Land Rover was picked up on automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras between Carlisle and Sycamore Gap at night on September 27 2023, and returning early the next morning. His phone was traced to cell sites making the same journey.

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 September 28, and had been sent to Carruthers.

They also found photos and videos of a wedge of tree trunk and a chainsaw in the boot of Graham’s Range Rover, although these have never been found.

Messages and voice notes between Graham and Carruthers the next day showed them talking about the story going “wild” and “viral”, referring to “an operation like we did last night” and joking that damage looked like it had been done by a professional.

But, Mr Wright said, by the time their trial started 18 months later, the pair had “lost their courage” and their once close friendship had collapsed, with each apparently blaming the other.

Graham accused Carruthers of taking his Range Rover and mobile phone to Sycamore Gap that night without his knowledge, saying he had now turned on his former friend because his business was being affected by Carruthers’ actions.

In his defence evidence Graham claimed Carruthers had a fascination with the sycamore, saying he had described it as “the most famous tree in the world” and spoken of wanting to cut it down, even keeping a piece of string in his workshop that he had used to measure the circumference.

Carruthers denied this and told the court he could not understand the outcry over the story, branding it “just a tree”.

He mocked public reaction to being akin to someone being murdered.

Cross examining Carruthers, Wright asked him: “Is that what’s at the heart of this? You thought it was ‘just a tree’, and when the rest of the world didn’t think it was ‘just a tree’ and it was a terrible and wicked thing to have done, you’ve lost your bottle and can’t own up to it?”

Gale Gilchrist, chief crown prosecutor at CPS North East, said: “For over a century, Sycamore Gap has been an iconic natural landmark in the North East of England, bringing immeasurable joy to those visiting the area.

“In just under three minutes, Graham and Carruthers ended its historic legacy in a deliberate and mindless act of destruction.

“As news of their crime spread the following day, the pair exchanged messages, revelling in the public outcry they had caused.

“Thanks to an outstanding investigation on the part of our police partners, the Crown Prosecution Service was able to build a robust case against both men and bring them to trial.

“The international reaction of disapproval and anger following the destruction at Sycamore Gap illustrates how keenly the public has felt the loss of this beloved site, and we hope our community can take some measure of comfort in seeing those responsible convicted today.”

They will be sentenced on July 15.