Moment famed tree chopped down played to UK court

Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, have denied causing criminal damage over the 2023 chopping down of the tree at Sycamore Gap, which had stood for nearly 200 years in a dramatic dip in the ancient landscape next to the UNESCO World Heritage Site Hadrian's Wall.

Prosecutors at the trial of the two men in Newcastle, northeast England, allege that a two-minute and 41 second video taken from Graham's phone is a recording of the tree being brought down.

The sycamore tree was a symbol of northeastern England and a key attraction photographed by millions of visitors over the years.

It was also used for a scene in the 1991 blockbuster film "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" starring Kevin Costner.

The coordinates of where the mobile phone footage was filmed from the video's metadata showed the location to be Sycamore Gap, next to the ancient Roman fortification, a police analyst told the court.

Although the recording was made "in darkness", prosecutor Richard Wright said the video featured "the unmistakable sound of a chainsaw, and a tree falling".

He said a police expert had enhanced the video and although still "extremely dark", what appeared to be the outline of a tree could be made out, initially upright and then on the ground.

Wright told Newcastle Crown Court on Tuesday that the pair drove to the site in Graham's Range Rover and felled the tree on September 27, 2023, slicing through the trunk in "a matter of minutes".

"Having completed their moronic mission, the pair got back into the Range Rover and travelled back towards Carlisle" where they lived, he said.

The pair are jointly charged with causing �622,191 ($832, 821) of criminal damage to the tree and �1,144 of damage to Hadrian's Wall, which stretches from northwest to northeast England.

The felling triggered intense feelings in Britain and jurors were asked if they had any emotional connection to the much-loved site during the selection process on Monday.