Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers have been sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court for chopping down the Sycamore Gap tree - an act of vandalism that caused outrage worldwide

Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers previously testified at trial that they had nothing to do with the vandalism, but a prosecutor said that the two convicts now blame booze for the act as they admitted before sentencing that they had been on what he termed a “moronic mission” to topple the tree.

Two men have been sentenced to four years and three months each in prison for felling a landmark sycamore tree in northern England.