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.

One of the men who chopped down the Sycamore Gap tree has revealed he cut it down in an act of “drunken stupidity”. Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, were convicted of causing criminal damage to the tree and Hadrian’s Wall, which was marred when the 150-year-old tree fell on it.