CUTTING down the beloved Sycamore Gap tree was the “arboreal equivalent of mindless thuggery”, a jury has heard.
And the two former pals accused of doing it “weren’t the big men they thought they were” when they saw the public outcry, it was said.
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Prosecutors said ground worker Daniel Graham, 39, and mechanic Adam Carruthers, 32, had caused “sadness and anger” across the world by felling the landmark by Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland.
They both deny driving from Carlisle during Storm Agnes in September 2023 to cut the tree down with a chainsaw.
In his closing speech yesterday, Richard Wright KC reminded jurors that Carruthers said during his evidence it was “just a tree” and the reaction was “as if somebody had been murdered”.
He added: “Perhaps that sentiment, that lack of appreciation, actually explains a great deal about these two defendants and about why . . . neither of them is willing to own up to what they have done.”
READ MORE ON THE GAP TREE CASE
He said the two men were “in it together from first to last”, adding: “Owning up to this arboreal equivalent of mindless thuggery would make them public enemy No1.
“Neither of them has got the courage to do that.”
The trial continues at Newcastle crown court.
The sycamore tree was used as a location in the 1991 movie Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves starring Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman.