Two friends guilty of 'moronic mission' to fell Sycamore Gap investigated for homophobia
13 May 2025, 13:01
The pair found guilty of the "moronic mission" to fell Sycamore Gap were also investigated over alleged homophobic assaults that occurred around the same time they chopped down the iconic tree.
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Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, were last week found guilty of causing criminal damage to the tree, valued at £620,000, which stood beside Hadrian’s Wall until it was felled in September 2023.
Nine days earlier, a man reported being doused in icing sugar and verbally abuse by two people on the side of a road in Cumbria.
The spot, mourned 20 miles from Sycamore Gap, is reportedly commonly used by men seeking sexual encounters.
A man had parked there a week before the tree was chopped down.
"There was a knock on my window," he said.
"I looked across and there was this black jeep, so I wound my window down and the passenger got quite homophobic with me," the man told the BBC.
A bag of icing sugar was then lobbed into the man's car before the other vehicle drove off.
He said he reported the incident to police that night and offered a description of the vehicle, but was unable to identify the alleged offenders..
The CPS dropped the case over a year later, but emails allegedly show police had prepared a file on Graham and Carruthers for prosecutors.
Cumbria Police said it carried out checks using the registration number the victim gave.
However, these showed the vehicle linked to that number plate, distinguishable to Graham's car by one letter, was never in Cumbria.
Police added that it was "complex investigation" and all "evidential opportunities" had been examined.
In April 2024, an officer from Cumbria Police visited the victim after a development in the case emerged.
Two men were arrested in connection with the incidents and video evidence was discovered on a phone belonging to one of them.
The victim was allegedly told to watch "10 or 12" videos showing multiple men being subjected to homophobic abuse, with objects being chucked into their vehicles in some instances.
He claimed a video of a separate male victim, who he recognised, was particularly distressing.
"I could see the fear in his eyes. It was quite nasty, and it was all homophobic," he said.
The man later gave a formal statement in August 2024.
Cumbria Police confirmed two men were detained on suspicion of two assaults spurred by hate.
A case was presented to the CPS relating to three victims and six offences in December 2024.
Tut the CPS never brought charges as there was insufficient evidence, including difficulty identifying the perpetrators and too much time passing between the incidents.
Detectives have blasted the CPS decision as "disappointing" and name Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers as the suspects, the BBC reports.
Graham and Carruthers are currently on remand awaiting sentencing for the felling of the Sycamore Gap tree.
The pair were found guilty after the jury in the trial of the two former friends was sent out to deliberate for a second day.
Richard Wright KC, prosecuting, said felling the tree had caused sadness and anger up and down the country.He added that the two defendants “must have thought that this was going to be a bit of a laugh”.
"They soon realised the public reaction was one of outrage “and that far from being the big men they thought they were, everyone else thought that they were rather pathetic”, Mr Wright said.
He added: “Owning up to this arboreal equivalent of mindless thuggery would make them public enemy number one. And neither of them has got the courage to do that.”
