Two friends went on a “moronic mission” to fell the famous Sycamore Gap tree in an act of “mindless vandalism” which they filmed on a phone, a jury has been told.

Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers used a chainsaw to chop down the tree and “the technique that they used showed expertise and a determined, deliberate approach to the felling”, prosecutors told Newcastle Crown Court on Tuesday morning.

Opening the case Richard Wright KC, prosecuting, said one of the men cut across the trunk, causing the sycamore to fall and hit Hadrian’s Wall, while the other defendant filmed what they were doing on Graham’s mobile phone.

It is alleged they made the recording as a “trophy” of their handiwork.

They then joked together when members of the public posted social media messages about the felling and congratulated themselves on “launching an operation like we did last night,” it is alleged.

Mr Wright said: “The prosecution say that two men are responsible for that mindless vandalism – the defendants, Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers.”

The prosecutor said the pair had driven to the Sycamore Gap area of Northumberland in Graham’s Range Rover from the Carlisle area, where they lived, late on September 27 2023.

Opening the prosecution case, Mr Wright told the jury: “Though the tree had grown for over 100 years, the act of irreparably damaging it was the work of a matter of minutes.

“Having completed their moronic mission, the pair got back into the Range Rover, and travelled back towards Carlisle.”

Graham, 39, of Millbeck Stables, Carlisle, and Carruthers, 32, of Church Street, Wigton, Cumbria, deny two counts each of criminal damage.

They are jointly charged with causing £622,191 of criminal damage to the much-photographed Northumberland tree.

They are also charged with causing £1,144 of damage to Hadrian’s Wall, a Unesco World Heritage Site.

The wall and the tree belong to the National Trust.

The trial continues.