The sentencing remarks may help.

https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Sentencing-Remarks-R-v-Graham-and-Carruthers-Final.pdf

Third, whilst your motivation for felling the tree is not clear in every respect, I am satisfied that you are both equally culpable. Mr Carruthers, you told the probation officer that you had no idea why you had carried out this crime and could offer no explanation for your actions. You blamed drink, saying you had drunk a bottle of whisky after a tough day and everything was a blur.

Mr Graham, in your interview with the probation officer, just as at trial, your main focus seemed to be to heap as much blame as possible on your co-defendant. You now accept that you were present but blame him for what happened that night. You have provided me with a witness statement from Mr Paul Fox. The statement takes the form of a character testimonial. However that statement repeats the contention that you were not the instigator of the offence and that your good nature has been exploited. Referring to Mr Carruthers, you told the probation officer that it was “his dream” and that it was “his show”, which you just went along with. You said that you went with him that night, not thinking that he would go through with the plan and that you were shocked when he did. You described him to the probation officer as a fantasist who had on other occasions damaged property to mark significant personal events or milestones. You say that the wedge was taken by Mr Carruthers as his trophy.

Although there may be grains of truth in what you have each said, I do not accept that your explanations to the probation officers are wholly honest or the whole story. Mr Carruthers, your account that you had had so much to drink that you have no memory of what you did that night is not plausible. The tree felling demonstrated skill and required deliberate and co-ordinated actions by you. As Mr Graham commented the next day having seen a photograph of the tree, you did not get a “bad angle” on the stump and the job seemed “professional.” This was not the work of someone whose actions were significantly impaired through drink. Nor, Mr Graham, do I accept that you just went along with your co-defendant. You filmed the whole event. You took photos of the stump and chain saw in the boot of the Range Rover. The next day you appeared to revel in the coverage of your actions in the media. This is not the behaviour of someone who is shocked or horrified by something that has happened.

I am confident that a major factor in your offending was sheer bravado. Felling the tree in the middle of the night and in the middle of a storm gave you some sort of thrill, as did the media coverage of your crimes over the following days. You revelled in the coverage, taking evident pride in what you had done, knowing that you were responsible for the crime which so many were talking about. Whether bravado and thrill-seeking provide the complete explanation for what you did, I do not know. However, as I say, I am quite sure that you are both equally culpable for the destruction of the tree and for the damage to the wall.