Who are the tree fellers and why did they do it?

Adam Carruthers and Daniel Graham have been jailed for cutting down the Sycamore Gap tree on Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland. Who are they? And, given they have never admitted causing the destruction that shocked the world, what might have possessed them to do it?

Many people who knew the pair spoke to the BBC, but most requested anonymity.

Among them were neighbours in the quiet street in Carlisle where 39-year-old Daniel Graham grew up. They remember him as an “average kid” before his parents’ separation – describing that as an event which “sent him off the rails.”

His dad Michael took his own life in 2021, something Graham spoke about while giving evidence in court in relation to his struggles with poor mental health.

He was estranged from many members of his family, with one saying he would “fly off the handle at anything”.

For the last decade Graham lived and worked on a patch of land on the outskirts of Kirkandrews-upon-Eden, just outside Carlisle.

He called it Millbeck Stables and ran his company, DM Graham Groundworks, from the site on a secluded lane, nestled among large country homes.

Journalist Kevin Donald described the plot as “a strange little shanty”.

“It’s got a caravan, horses on the land and pillars at the entrance with lions on the top,” he said.

Graham erected a series of buildings, a stable block, horse shelter and storage unit, gaining planning permission for some of them.

He lived on site in a static caravan, largely hidden behind big metal gates which included his initials.

Harold Bowron, chairman of the village’s Parish Hall Committee, said Graham was “a man of mystery, a bit of an odd-bod”.

“There were these black gates and then a tall fence all round the site with black plastic sheeting so you couldn’t see in, but there were lights on all night.

“His lorry is still there. You can see in now because all the plastic has come down.”

A planning application for Graham to be allowed to live on the site was rejected in April 2023, five months before the Sycamore Gap tree was cut down.

He had not been paying council tax and among the comments on the application was a claim he had displayed “dominant and oppressive” behaviour.

“When news came out he’d been arrested, we weren’t surprised,” Mr Bowron said.

“Everyone was saying ‘oh yes that strange bloke’.”

In court, the jury heard that tree felling was part of Graham’s business and he owned three or four chainsaws.

Adam Carruthers helped him with that work, and the court was told the pair were close friends.

Carruthers grew up in Wigton, a market town in Cumbria with a history stretching back to medieval times.

His parents still live there and town councillor Chris Scott described it as a place where families put down roots and stay for generations.

Scott did not know Carruthers personally, but runs a social media site for the town and remembers a “curious silence” when he was arrested.

“People weren’t discussing it all, which surprised me because it was such a big story at the time.”

A childhood friend of Carruthers said he was “a bit of an outcast” but also the last person he would expect to have been involved in the felling of the tree.

His arrest was “the talk” of their school friendship group.

“Growing up we were the good kids,” the friend said. “We couldn’t get our heads around it. You would never ever think he would do something like that.”

Carruthers went to Nelson Thomlinson School where another fellow pupil described him as a “bit of a loner”.

“He always kept to himself and in classes he wouldn’t talk. Teachers would try and get him to talk, and fail.”

At the time of his arrest in October 2023, Carruthers had recently become a father for the second time and was living in a caravan with his partner at Kirkbride Airfield.

Graham and Carruthers met in 2021 when the latter, who was a mechanic, repaired a Land Rover belonging to Graham’s father so it could be used for his funeral.

Graham called Carruthers his “best pal” and paid him to help him on jobs, splitting the cash evenly.

But their friendship splintered as the trial unfolded, with Graham blaming Carruthers who, in turn, said he had no idea who did it.

The men denied any involvement but, after being found guilty, made admissions to probation officers.

Carruthers claimed it was nothing more than “drunken stupidity”, while Graham alleged it was his co-accused’s “dream” and “show” and he just went along to help.

When jailing them for four years and three months each, Mrs Justice Lambert said a full motive was not known but “sheer bravado” and getting a thrill from the outrage were factors.

Messages they exchanged in the aftermath showed them revelling in their notoriety, the judge said.

In one voicenote, Daniel Graham exclaimed: “It’s gone viral, it is worldwide.”

Newcastle University’s Bethany Usher, who specialises in crime journalism, is among those who believe the pair were craving attention.

“Social media has completely changed the way we view ourselves, taking video of ourselves doing things is so part of our lived experience,” she said.

“What became clear from the trial is that they enjoyed the attention they got worldwide.

“It’s like they were saying ‘I’m someone, I have got the attention of people’, and they forgot that what they were doing was providing evidence for the police.

“The truth is they knew the tree was special, but they were trying to show they counted more.”

Dr Philip Stone from the University of Lancashire, who studies dark tourism where visitors travel to sites of death, brutality and terror, said the pair may have “enjoyed watching the distress they had caused from such spiteful, wanton ecological vandalism”.

“To use the German psychology phrase schadenfreude, some people take a pleasure in other’s people’s misfortune and getting a sense of perverted pleasure from the response from that.

“It is as though they are thinking ‘Yeh, I’m going to get my 15 minutes of fame, but I’m also going to get pleasure in seeing other people’s grief’.”

Among those hurt by the loss of something both very public and personal was Hayley Graham-Hardy.

She got engaged at the Sycamore Gap tree and, after her wedding, she and her husband Lee posed for their photographs there.

“Strong, resilient always there, the tree symbolised what we wanted our marriage to be,” she said.

The couple had hoped there had been more to the felling than Carruthers and Daniel having “a bit of a laugh” and it “stung” to find out that seemed to be their only motive.

“They sent messages to each other about someone not having the ‘minerals’ to do what they did,” she said.

“I’d like to say to them, ‘you guys haven’t got the minerals to own up to what you did and I hope that sticks with you in prison’.”