Men jailed for felling Britain's iconic 'Sycamore Gap' tree

LONDON (Reuters) -Two men were each jailed for over four years on Tuesday for cutting down Britain's 'Sycamore Gap' tree, a much-loved and well-known global landmark whose dramatic silhouette had featured in a Hollywood movie.

The sycamore, estimated to be almost 200 years old, stood at the centre of a dramatic dip in the landscape alongside the historic Hadrian's Wall in northern England, making it a popular spot for photographers, hikers and even marriage proposals.

Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, were found guilty last month of travelling from their homes in the middle of the night in September 2023 to deliberately cut it down with a chainsaw.

They filmed what prosecutors described as a "moronic mission" on Graham's mobile phone and later bragged about it, before the pair's friendship descended into acrimony as the widespread anger at their actions became clear.

Both had denied any involvement in the felling of the tree, which featured in the 1991 film "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" and also damaged part of Hadrian's Wall, built by the Romans almost 2,000 years ago and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Graham and Carruthers did, however, accept their responsibility when speaking to probation officers, their lawyers said. Carruthers' lawyer Andrew Gurney described it as "drunken stupidity".

Sentencing them to four years and three months in prison, Judge Christina Lambert told the men they had cut down the tree out of "sheer bravado".

The National Trust, a heritage conservation charity which looks after the site, said last August there were signs of life at the base of the tree, giving hope it might live on.

Last week, the Northumberland National Park said the largest part of the tree would go on display in an installation located not far from where it once stood.

(Reporting by Michael Holden and Sam Tobin; Editing by Sachin Ravikumar)