Great Britain's latest true crime thriller: Who killed the Sycamore tree?

In the early September morning in 2023, two men arrived on an old Roman wall in northern England and under the cover of a storm that had committed one of the best -known crimes in Great Britain.

They cut a tree together, prosecutors claim in a case that has gripped the United Kingdom

The huge sycamore was perfectly framed by two small hills along the almost 2,000 year old fortress and had become a tourist attraction and a regional symbol. There was even a scene role in the film “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” from 1991 with Kevin Costner. The death of the tree sent shock waves through Great Britain and triggered accusations and sharpness on site and a great criminal investigation in which the police in England examined chainsy.

In a courtroom in Newcastle, Adam Carruthers (32) and Daniel Graham (39) are accused of having caused criminal damage to the tree and the old wall, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. They both asked innocently.

The deliberate destruction of old trees has often thrilled trouble worldwide. In Great Britain, where trees play in royal and scientific history in the leading role, there were only a few who were loved like this huge mountain rawn, under whose wide canopy married people, ash spread or simply drunk.

But shortly after midnight on September 28th, the icon, which is over 150 years old, was felled in less than three minutes.

The public prosecutor said that the trip to her death had started the night before when Carruthers and Graham loaded a chain saw into a range of Rover and drove 40 miles from her hometown Carlisle on a trip that was later persecuted via mobile phones and police cameras.

“After completing her idiotic mission, the couple returned to the Range Rover and traveled back to Carlisle,” said prosecutor Richard Wright to the court who heard the case this week.

On this journey home, Carruther's partner sent him a video in which a child was fed a bottle. This emerges from an exchange of text that the prosecutors had presented to the court. Carruthers replied: “I have a better video than that.” He later sent film material from what prosecutors say, the tree that was cut down.

Video: Film material of what prosecutors say is the tree, which was digitally improved and shown in court, was published by the British public prosecutor's service in Great Britain.

When Alison Hawkins was played on Wednesday's attempt on Wednesday on Wednesday, she felt emotional.

Hawkins wanted to visit the tree since he saw him in “Robin Hood” as a child. Instead, the hiker and her husband were the first to witness his dismembered trunk.

When Hawkins arrived on site that morning, she took on a strong storm last night. But then a park ranger appeared and pointed on a silver line on the trunk to lead a chainsaw. She and her husband were brought to tears.

“You can forgive nature, you can't forgive it,” she said.

The news of the run around soon spread on social media. It directed British media bulletins and websites all day. When the people flocked to the crime scene that were already held by the police, the tree was removed to prevent the souvenir hunters from taking a piece.

Carruthers and Graham seemed to enjoy their performance, according to the prosecutors.

“It has become viral. It is worldwide,” said Graham in a recorded message to Carruthers when they exchanged messages, a copy of the recording sent by the public prosecutor.

But the couple was not happy about the reporting. Graham discovered a comment on Facebook, which described the felling as a disgusting act of weak people, and gave his alleged accomplice a different language note. “Weak? He recognizes how difficult SH -” he said.

In the meantime, some locals took the law into their own hands.

Over a hundred people called a nearby pub that had promised twice brewed inn after it had promised a bar -bar -bar of 1,200 GBP at that time, or about 1,500 US dollars for all information that led to a conviction.

“The phone went all the time and people who said, I think it is this person, it is this person,” said Steve Blair, the landlord, whose pub is a beer called Sycamore Gap after the tree.

The police soon arrested Walter Renwick, a retired local lumberjack, who had recently been driven out by the farm that his family had rented for generations. Renwick was released shortly afterwards, but said that the arrest made him a pariah. The former farmer hit a blonde wig in Rod Stewart style to hide, he told the newspaper Sunday Times.

“If I had done a murder, I would be less problematic,” he said.

The police had new suspects and arrested Carruthers and Graham by October.

Shortly after the arrests had been announced, another Daniel Graham, a local forestry worker, was at work when he received the first of over 400 calls, texts and Facebook messages in which he angrily accused him of destroying the tree. In addition to pictures of newly felled trees, amateur detectives had found him online and jumped to the wrong conclusion.

“She swore and said terrible things about how it dares and how disrespectful to reduce this tree,” he said.

Graham keeps an eye on the process of his namesake. Live blogs of Packed Court Proceedings were carried out in the British websites, while shipment messages were regularly presented updates.

After he had arrested Graham and Carruthers, the police went to work and Sobte their phones and that of Carruthers' partner.

To the evidence: A photo and videos of the Range Rovers tribe that shows what prosecutors say is a trophy section of the tree and the chain that cuts it off.

When a forensic botanist examined the photo, it came to strong evidence to believe that the wooden section came from the uphill.

The police never found the gun. The other unresolved secret: the motive for crime.

Cutting or harmful trees often lead to strong reactions.

In 1864, anger about producing the huge “Discovery” Redwood Tree in California contributed to providing the US government for the first time. Britain was scandalized in 2020 when a 3-foot part of the centuries-old oak tree, in which the actual Robin hood, in contrast to Costner, was hidden from Legend, torn down by people who climbed on it.

It may have exceeded all of the mourning of the mourning over the Bergkamore, supported by social media. George Mahood, a writer based in southern England, said that he feels physically ill when he heard about the fate of the tree.

Mahoot, who used a picture of the Bergahne for one of his books, said his attraction was in his area. Nobody would have taken care of the tree if it had only been one of many, he believes.

“It was like it was perfect for a place where it has grown,” he said.

In the two -time roasted inn, less than half a mile removed from the stand of the tree stump, there is now a TV screen message messages of the trial version.

“Everyone in the pub turns to the screen when immersing themselves,” said Blair.

Blair found it uncomfortable to see the film material of the fur. “It was just a tree,” he said. “But we feel sick without breaking into a bad language … it is devastating.”

What the Sycamore remained has been chopped since then, and the parts that are distributed to locations, including a local visitor center. The pub is preserved that Blair wants to stick under the floor with a glass pane.

Write to Alistair Macdonald under alistair.macdonald@wsj.com