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The Sycamore Gap Mystery - Season 1 Episode 1
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00:01One's for sorrow, two's for joy
00:09Three's for a girl and four's for a boy
00:17Five's for silver, six for gold
00:23Seven's for a secret never told
00:32Devil, devil, I defy thee
00:40Devil, devil, I defy thee
00:46Devil, devil, I defy thee
00:55Good morning everybody, we had Storm Agnes yesterday
01:08that brought some strong winds and some heavy rains
01:10towards northern and western areas of the UK
01:12but Agnes is no more
01:14It's going to be a much quieter day for many of us actually
01:16We've got some sunny spells around this morning
01:18It was actually a really miserable morning
01:20You know, there was no sunlight breaking through
01:22It was quite bleak
01:24But it had been really windy the night before
01:30About seven o'clock in the morning
01:31a guy in the photography WhatsApp group that we were part of
01:34dropped a picture in the group of Sycamore Gap 3
01:36but it was on its side
01:39It was a very pixelated picture
01:41You couldn't really see it very clear
01:43And I was like, that's got to be a photo show
01:44You know, and all the lads in the group were like
01:46Nah, it's can't be real
01:47Can't be real
01:48I don't think it's real
01:51I don't think it's real
01:52Buses, I'll fly up
01:53And we just basically headed straight to the tree, you know
01:59I knew from the military road
02:00You could get a good sight of the tree side on
02:02I pulled up on the military road
02:17Got my camera, my big lens out
02:19Aimed it at the tree
02:20I was like, oh my god, it is, it's down
02:32We headed up to the tree
02:33It was about eight o'clock-ish
02:37When we got to the tree, just like gobsmacked
02:39Absolutely gobsmacked
02:41I documented it all
02:46And I recorded a video
02:48You know, put it on my social media platforms
02:50I was like, look, this is actually happening
02:52Absolutely shocking
02:54Destroyed forever
02:56Really sad, isn't it?
02:58I remember thinking
03:03It's as if somebody went along with a still-so
03:05And cut the time bridge down
03:08The sorrow around, you know
03:10Just the sadness
03:11It was horrendous
03:18I remember going on a social media
03:20And it was just the most sickening, sickening feeling
03:25For astronomers like me
03:28The sycamore gap was particularly special
03:31Because it's so photogenic
03:33With the symmetry
03:43Seeing the tree lying there, dead
03:47It just felt
03:48It felt like, oh, it was a murder
03:53My initial thought was
03:55Has the storm taken it down?
03:59But when it was hinted
04:01Very, very early on
04:03No, no, no
04:04Someone's actually
04:05Someone's done this
04:06You can see the markings on the tree
04:07You can see all this stuff
04:10It completely changed
04:16Who in the right mind would do this, you know?
04:18You're talking about psychopaths
04:19Something awful's happened up at Sycamore Gap
04:20We've just managed to stand this up
04:21In the last few minutes
04:22The famous tree at Sycamore Gap
04:23Has been cut down
04:24It's like stealing joy
04:25That tree was ours
04:26I'm sitting in a car park
04:27Weeping
04:28All that remains is a stump
04:29It was palpable, the shock in the community
04:30I saw it on Facebook
04:31I remember seeing the pictures thinking
04:32It's a joke, is it April?
04:33Is it April?
04:34Disbelief
04:35Anger
04:36You literally had your head in your hands going
04:37I can't believe this is happening
04:38I can't believe this is happening
04:39I'm sitting in a car park
04:40I'm sitting in a car park
04:41Weeping
04:42All that remains is a stump
04:50It was palpable, the shock in the community
04:52I saw it on Facebook
04:54I remember seeing the pictures thinking
04:56It's a joke, is it April?
04:58Disbelief
05:02Anger
05:03You literally had your head in your hands going
05:05I can't believe this is happening
05:06You just don't understand why
05:14It was such a bizarre thing to happen
05:16We just couldn't work out why anybody would want to do that
05:19It had to be something malicious
05:23It would have to have been cut down
05:25Because some brain dead idiot thought it would be good fun
05:36I was at work and I started hearing across the office that the tree had been felled or had fallen over
05:46And they knew what had happened
05:47So 999 calls were coming in
05:49I don't care, please, how can I help?
05:51I've been shocked as he reported that the tree at Sycamore Gap has been cut down
05:56The tree has been felled overnight
05:58It's all like the social media
06:00Apparently someone felled in the tree at Sycamore Gap
06:03I don't know if you're aware
06:04I'm not aware at all
06:05It will be on the national news tonight, I guarantee it
06:07Yeah
06:08Yeah, just to confirm there's a variety of folk taking photographs
06:13Police officers were dispatched to identify what was happening
06:17And in essence, get that scene controlled
06:20If you could just clear back a tad
06:22Just so we can gather as much evidence as we can
06:24Okay, thank you very much
06:29Right, I cannot see any property lying about
06:32I cannot see any oil
06:34I can't see any footprints
06:36Obviously every man and his dogs trailed through here this morning
06:40There has been spray paint
06:42Sprayed around the base
06:44There's a clean cut three quarters of the way through
06:46There might be a local tree searching to be fair
06:56In this case the victim is, for want of a better word, the tree really
07:02So straight away it's criminal damage
07:05Someone has unlawfully cut that tree down
07:08It was damaged to Hadrian's wall as well
07:11I work in the major investigation team
07:13And the majority of the incidents that we deal with are homicides
07:17Criminal damage
07:18It isn't generally something that crops up in any of my investigations
07:21And my experience around trees, felling, anything like that is pretty much zero
07:27So I identified Detective Inspector Callum Meagle
07:32Because he worked in the rural crime team
07:34I never thought that I'd be in a position like I am today
07:41Talking about a criminal damage
07:44Because that is what it is
07:48The fact that somebody had chopped down the Sycamore Gap tree
07:54For me, it's an attack on people's, erm...
07:58The way people live
08:04The Sycamore Gap
08:06Means an awful lot to a lot of people
08:08So the tree was planted about 130 years ago
08:18By a local landowner
08:19In a dip between two escarpments
08:21Right next to Hadrian's wall
08:23That was built centuries ago
08:27To people of the North East
08:29It's been somewhere that has been visited for an awful long time
08:33Families would make a yearly pilgrimage
08:38People would go there and propose
08:42And scatter ashes
08:48The tree has been through so much
08:51World wars, storms
08:54So you always believe it's gonna be here forever
09:00It did feel like a friend
09:02I know it sounds silly
09:03But it felt like it was a gift
09:07Just for you
09:08So, yeah, it was really special
09:10For sure
09:17I wanted to find out who was responsible
09:26Crime scene investigators were dispatched
09:28When I reviewed the photographs
09:31I could see a wedge and hinge method
09:34Had been used to fell the tree
09:37And I had a few puzzled faces
09:40As to, er...
09:41How do you know that?
09:43Which I explained that my father was a forester
09:45And so I understood the technicalities
09:47So the wedge
09:48It's like a big bit of cheese that you see in a supermarket
09:50You know, it's that shape
09:52And it is cut out
09:53On the side that you're gonna fell the tree
09:55And gets placed to one side
09:57Our crime scene managers searched around the tree itself
10:00However, we weren't able to find it
10:01However, we weren't able to find it
10:03So we were minus the wedge
10:05And I thought, hmm, this is interesting
10:10If you're gonna do something of this sort of significance
10:14You would take a trophy
10:15We weren't able to find it
10:19So we were minus the wedge
10:24This is interesting
10:27If you're gonna do something of this sort of significance you would take a trophy and the most obvious section would be the wedge
10:37So I made the decision not to release the fact that the wedge hadn't been recovered
10:42I wanted to keep that quite tight in the investigation
10:45If we were able to locate that wedge, we could find the person who has committed this crime
11:00Police were all of the hillside. It was like a murder scene
11:08It's part of the fabric of our community, but today a tree had every TV
11:15News company asking for interviews to the point of where I didn't know which one was which
11:22This grand old sycamore fells. We thought someone was playing tricks on us and then we saw the news
11:27It's just mindless vandalism
11:30Whoever's done this needs to do some serious time like serious type the video that I put on the social media
11:35The post hit like over two million views which was just crazy because I only had like a couple hundred people following us
11:43And that's when all the rumors started to fly about
11:45What do you think of it that someone could do that?
11:49My guessing is maybe a disgruntled local farmer don't like tourists or just someone who's very sad
11:55As soon as a case hit media, I knew that we would then generate intelligence
12:05Nothing, please. How can I help?
12:07Um, the lad is local to the area. He's always joking about fell in the tree at Sickerbocker
12:13And I don't know why you would want to do that because it's probably the most iconic tree in Northumberland
12:18Now I've got a feeling it possibly could have been him
12:25One of the first calls made to police put forward a young lad from the local area out of genuine concern
12:35You know, it's just strange that he jokes about doing it, you know, after it's a shit thing to do, I think
12:40I remember wondering could this have been committed by somebody younger in years who hasn't seen the potential significance of his actions
12:55So we need to act quickly and make sure that we don't lose pieces of evidence
13:01Now the keeper would a hunt and go, and under his army carried a bow
13:12All far to shoot the merry little doe, among the leaves so green o'
13:16Jacky boy, master, singing well, very well
13:18Hey down, ho down, derry derry down, among the leaves so green o'
13:22To my hey down, down, to my ho down, down
13:25Hey down, ho down, derry derry down, among the leaves so green o'
13:29Now the first door he shall...
13:32Hull Whistle is the closest town to Sycamore Gap
13:35There's the Pennines on one way and then there's the Roman Wall behind you
13:39Jacky boy, master, singing well, very well
13:42Hey down, ho down, derry derry down, among the leaves so green o'
13:44Edge of the world kind of place, I think
13:46Well, like the frontier, the northern frontier
13:50Among the leaves so green o'
13:53I run a 14-bed holiday home
13:58I run the local Facebook page for Visit Hull Whistle
14:01I'm a local counsellor on the town council
14:04I volunteer in the charity shop
14:06And I also work one day a week in the shoe shop
14:08And I'm supposed to be retired
14:10In Hull Whistle, a lot of people depend on tourism
14:16And lots of people come to the area to visit the tree
14:19Two shops, yeah, brilliant, thank you
14:21Four and eight to me
14:22There's not much other than cattle and sheep and tourism
14:25Flash, Sycamore Gap, it's just a tree on Hadrian's wall
14:30Nobody ever thought about it, he talked about it or nothing
14:32Until Kevin Costner came to do the film there
14:35I am home, woo!
14:37The tree looks absolutely fantastic in the film
14:40It's unbelievable now that the tree has gone
14:43People come into the pub at least a dozen times a day
14:48And they'll literally say, can you tell me where the tree is
14:50The one that used to be in Robin Hood
14:52We sell more Sycamore Gap than all of the other beers put together
14:55We have a wine called Under the Sycamore
14:58We have Sycamore Gap Gin
15:00And then I have a tree which lights up as well
15:02So yeah, anything but Sycamore
15:07Everyone just wanted to know who it is, who's done it and why
15:10Northumbria Police have confirmed they've arrested a 16-year-old boy this afternoon
15:18The tree in Sycamore Gap is...
15:19All of a sudden I heard that a young 16-year-old kid was being arrested
15:26And he was from around this local area
15:28We literally couldn't believe it, we couldn't understand why
15:35Once the rumour started flying about
15:37About the 16-year-old lad who was arrested
15:40Everybody started like a witch hunt
15:41I remember going on social media and it was quite like
15:44Pretty nasty stuff
15:47And I was thinking, do you want to make sure this is actually correct
15:50Like, because this could ruin a kid's life
15:59Everybody focused on him and it was going to be him
16:01And I was like, you've got to think about it
16:03How can a 16-year-old go up there and chop down that tree?
16:07You can't be him
16:14Searches were conducted and also he was interviewed
16:17He categorically denied being responsible for the criminal act
16:23He provided an alibi which checked out
16:25So he was quickly ruled out of the investigation
16:36I do know the 16-year-old
16:37And I know that it has had a negative effect on him
16:41He was totally innocent
16:46At that point in time
16:47Given the nature of the information that was passed to the investigation team
16:52You have to have investigated that properly
16:56Because that's justice
17:00But the next arrest, we needed to get it right
17:02There is anger and dismay in Britain this morning
17:15A tree that has stood in northern England for hundreds of years
17:19Has been chopped down
17:20And police say it was a deliberate act of vandalism
17:24The fact of vandalism is just about England
17:29Within 24 hours it had gone from local to national to international global news
17:41The pressure that subsequently came with that is quite considerable
17:45The tree stood in Northumberland in the north end of England
17:54I needed to go up to the scene and search for potential evidence
17:59So myself and Becky, the boss, travelled up together
18:06It seemed quite surreal when I looked where the sycamore gap is
18:09And it wasn't there anymore
18:11That's when the gravity of what had happened started sinking
18:14We'd parked up in steel rig car park
18:24Which is the car park adjacent to where you would start the walk towards sycamore gap
18:31The first thing was looking at which route would they have taken
18:34What direction would they have come in
18:36What would they have been carrying
18:37Would have been one person
18:38Would have been more than one person that was involved
18:40I could see straight away the stump was laid bare
18:54I knew that as soon as a cordon was taken down
18:58People were going to be walking on the stump
19:00So what I wanted to do was maintain the integrity of that first cut
19:04So the best way that I could do that was to take a section of the entire stump
19:16I think people were quite shocked
19:17You know, it had already been cut once
19:19And now the police were coming and they were taking sections away
19:26Actually having the surfaces that were cut on that night
19:29We would have the best possible way of matching up tool marks to potential chainsaws
19:38It was a scene that provided quite significant challenges
19:42It's a very very rural location
19:46There's plenty of sheep but unfortunately there are no cameras
19:51There are no witnesses
19:52We had a twice brood in that was as close to the scene that we were going to get
20:06The police started coming in looking at cctv because we have it angled right around the pub
20:11This camera looks across our car park and you can see sycamore gap over here in the corner
20:20You couldn't quite see the tree because it's just in the dip
20:23But you didn't see the military road right outside the front of the pub
20:26The cameras do have automatic night vision as well
20:29We had a little look but i couldn't see anything so he just downloaded everything he needed
20:39We were like imagine if there's someone parks in our car park and you see them take a chainsaw out
20:43We'll be like oh my god
20:50So we're at a point now where we were really limited with what we had
20:54We needed assistance from the local community
21:06After the 16 year old was released there was lots of talk in the town about who and what and why
21:12and lots of theories of why people had done it
21:15It was a social media dare i thought you have got to be joking
21:27Everybody was like naming people i think it was bob who lives down the road i think it was him
21:32i think it was him just because they have a chainsaw
21:38the thing is most people around here have got chainsaws i've even got a chainsaw
21:46we've all got chainsaws
21:50definitely nothing the police how can i help
21:52i've just seen someone make a bit of an odd post on facebook
21:55that shared a meme about cutting the tree down with a butter knife
21:59shared a post about cutting it down with a butter knife
22:01not about specifically cutting the sycamore gap tree down with a butter knife
22:07one of the kids in my lesson today was talking about cutting down the tree the other day
22:12i think he was your team and i was like i'm worried they're wasting to jerk them out
22:16isn't it yeah
22:20what's the mayor please can i help i've got a postal suspect he's got a motive we shall pass on you
22:24i've got no evidence
22:26a local farmer believes they've got the name of the postal suspects
22:31right okay have you got any details for the file we had quite a number of names being put forward
22:37and there was a recurring name there's a chap called the name i've been given is
22:45he's getting shocked out of his house part of the evidence against him has come from the national
22:49trust and who owes the sycamore gap tree national trust when you've got somebody being put forward
22:56on a number of occasions it will always you know put your interest as a local living in hall twistle
23:03everyone is naming one man
23:08he had knowledge and previous experience and he also had a real motive to potentially commit this criminal act
23:19and that night on day two the second arrest was made certainly there was a potential grudge with
23:28the national trust is this revenge a second person has been arrested in connection with the felling of
23:36the sycamore gap tree we've just been told that a man in his 60s has been arrested by northumbria police
23:41people are starting to think that somebody did this who had a grudge against the national trust
23:50everyone believed it everyone in the local area started to think okay that makes sense maybe
23:55that's what happened i hope they throw the book at you know whoever did it we don't know who we wait for some news
24:00during the interview he provided an account of his whereabouts which we were able to confirm
24:11he categorically denied any involvement any knowledge he said he wasn't fit enough to have committed this
24:19offense so i was satisfied that he wasn't involved and it was decided that he could be released
24:30the kai with me within 48 hours we had interviewed and bailed two people we had names we had people
24:41being put forward but we really didn't have anything solid
24:48as it happens it was just complete hearsay you know it wasn't true at all
24:52i got fed up of listening to it could be this it could be that you need concrete proof and i thought
25:03the police they need to get their act together
25:09the eyes of the world were looking at this investigation and what was northumbria police
25:13doing about identifying who was responsible for cutting this famous tree down
25:31it was a hard period of time we really didn't have anything to go on
25:36i do get very invested in what i do because if i lose interest it would be a case that you know
25:45was never solved but i was never going to lose interest in this
25:49so i went back through the calls
26:01um i'm phoning regarding the cut down tree at sycamore gap
26:08there was uh one witness who was in his camper van on that night
26:19i was parked in the nearest car park called steel rig car park all night
26:28as far as anybody knows i've been the only vehicle here with no plausible explanation
26:34so i kind of don't want to be accused of cutting the tree down
26:41when he woke up in steel rig car park to find quite a number of people there
26:45he contacted northumbria police
26:49but the information he was able to provide was quite key
26:56when i turned up in the car park there was nobody here and i turned up about 10 half 10
27:01and obviously i went to sleep but one o'clock in the morning i was woken up by a vehicle leaving the car park
27:06all i know is that it was a four by four of some description i know that just by hearing it start
27:17up because i'm a mechanic
27:24i didn't hear it turn up but it woke me when it left at one o'clock in the morning
27:28that information meant that we could look at the twice brewed in cctv footage at that specific time
27:42round about one o'clock in the morning you can see a set of lights
27:50there's a vehicle traveling along the military road
27:54in a westerly direction almost an hour earlier at 23 55 hours there was a set of lights that had
28:05traveled in an easterly direction
28:11in the background you can see the vehicle turn off the military road heading up the minor road
28:19and out of sight
28:27up that road is the steel rig car park
28:41so that gave us 63 minutes and that would give enough time
28:46to walk from the steel rig car park to the gap fell the tree
28:52return and drive away past again
28:58so now we can use other cctv opportunities to start looking at the potential journey into the area
29:04however in october everything changed
29:18we received an anonymous tip-off identifying two individuals
29:23daniel graham and adam carruthers we've never heard of those individuals before
29:28the tip-off made mention of the fact that these two lads had retained a section of the tree
29:43the fact that a piece of the tree hadn't been recovered that information that detail wasn't
29:48known i think at that point that's when i realized actually there's something significant here
29:53you think right okay what do we know about them what do we need to know
30:01daniel graham was on facebook has been a ground worker and quite obviously was involved in tree
30:08surgery i was expecting that they would have been from the local community however both individuals
30:16reside in the carlisle area which is quite strange there's quite a distance from carlisle across to the
30:22the sycamore gap tree
30:28i remember taking a phone call from the intelligence unit he said i've ran the vehicles associated to
30:35them across ampr and he says there's a range rover that's registered to daniel graham
30:44and it travels from cumbria into northumbria police area and then an hour and a half later
30:51travels back out again and does exactly the same route but in the reverse
31:00spoke to the boss and said fasten yourself in i think we've really got something going here
31:05and it was at that point i raised them as suspects
31:12i wanted to arrest simultaneously to prevent any collusion between the two
31:20daniel graham lived in a piece of land in a caravan
31:23there were lots of outbuildings it was quite a chaotic location
31:29are you going to let you put these dogs in the kennel are you sure are they all right they're friendly
31:36it's covered in mud that's all oh that's all right is it daniel
31:40oh come on daniel at this time okay i'm going to arrest you on suspicion of criminal damage okay
31:49we want an interview regarding the damage okay
31:56underneath yeah i'm not gonna i'm gonna let me colleagues stay in you watch you put some clothes
32:00on nowhere i put some clothes on that's just when we arrest you we can't leave you on your own but
32:04i'll step out and i'll let you thingy hi
32:06i led the team that went to adam carruthers adam carruthers address was in an old airfield
32:21i woke him knocking on his caravan window it was certainly not something that he was expecting at
32:27that point in time for them to be traveling to custody was a relief
32:36okay the time now is uh 15 55 it's the 31st of october 2023
32:45daniel you're responsible for criminal damage namely felon of a tree at sycamore gap no no
32:53dan can you recall your movement on that night i'll be honest with you it's months ago and i
32:58haven't a clue i don't know would you recall if you had done anything out of the ordinary i think
33:04if i'd cut that tree down a bit of 10 90 it's the online work where i was that day yeah i didn't
33:09cut that tree down so on that day i didn't do anything exciting right anything exciting last
33:14night or the night before good time what i've done three days ago four days ago i couldn't have
33:18a clue that's for a month i honestly don't know well daniel graham seemed quite calm and
33:28quite ready to answer questions even in his posture when he was being interviewed he was very laid back
33:34he was quite almost arrogant
33:38um do you understand what you've been arrested for yes you do so you've been arrested on suspicion
33:52of criminal damage and it's in relation to the tree that was cut down in second wall gap
33:58in adrian's wall yeah do you have any knowledge about who's responsible but none at all
34:06like i just had a new baby on the 15th of september and my partner shared a cesarean so i was like
34:13around helping her so between this period the 23th and 28th of september would you have left
34:19company i wouldn't have thought so adam was non-committal his response was quite often i
34:30wouldn't have thought so you weren't in that area no i wouldn't have thought to
34:37it's quite an unusual answer either no you weren't or i don't think so i wouldn't i wouldn't have thought
34:45so like um i wouldn't have thought so no
34:53what about a lad called dan dan graham i know dan you know dan how do you know dan
34:59it was quite weird how we were going on to be fair um he asked us to let the family see his dad's
35:08land rover before me dad died me dad's on the road the road was fucked he felt put it into adam
35:13he that welded up so that's kind of all mine and adam said she picked up that's pretty much one of
35:19people i say it's got every day i'm the only person i'm not worried like to go to friends
35:24i was overseeing and managing the interviews and then also at the same time receiving updates
35:53from the two scenes so daniel graham's property is a piece of land with a large static caravan
36:04and some outbuildings filled with all manner of agricultural machinery
36:15the black range rover was immediately secured
36:23the vehicle was transported to northumbria place where we could conduct a forensic analysis
36:39to see if we could identify further evidence
36:41if you've got any reason why a range rover will be in that vicinity
36:51it's online
36:53would anybody else you have access to that yeah
36:59right do you keep the note of who's had it
37:01the search is continued and within some of the small outbuildings
37:16there were chainsaws hanging on the wall
37:18there were fairly short bar saws
37:40they didn't have the sufficient blade length for chopping down the sycamore gap tree
37:50does adam work for you it does tree work it was tree work yeah
37:55would you say adam's pretty good at tree work yeah yeah
37:58yeah who's it you worked for adam uh i worked for a few people to be fair um so i just like help out
38:06doing a mechanic sort of thing and have you had any training and uh train sort of bring chainsaws
38:12or anything like that no not a lot like if i'm honest i'm not really keen on them to be fair because
38:15they're they are nasty they're there
38:17so adam was trying to push himself away from any capability and use of a chainsaw yet his friend
38:29stated that actually he was really quite handy with a saw have you never done a tree before
38:35no not not to my not to my memory like i've i have never you're saying you've never filmed one and
38:43you wouldn't know how to do it no i wouldn't i wouldn't have to try it that way you start to think
38:49we're on the right tracks here
39:03at that point in time detective constable kim reed had been seconded onto the team and i asked kim
39:11to prioritize the devices seized from daniel graham and adam cruz was that your phone yeah yeah
39:20adam had what we would refer to as a burner phone it was a very small phone with very limited
39:26capabilities and they've both said you'll never find anything on my phone what about the password
39:35normally people don't provide pins to the phones if they have something to hide
39:39so when dan give his pin code i had a bit of a sinking feeling and think they've got nothing to
39:44hide they're willing to help you take me all my phone down all the way you want it's all of mine
39:48all my phone all that actually like you're being totally denying this offense totally denying it
39:53that's sticking all the gaps i can't do with me i did not trip to that fucking tree
39:57that's quite a known guy that's what's in you i'm fucking boiling that's my livelihood
40:01that's fucked my lab coming in here today it's fucked my library because no don't use
40:04lots of my fucking name i'm depressed i've been locked up that's my business focus probably by
40:10time i got up here and i figured out tonight i'm going to be the center of the fucking facebook
40:13because my needs tied to this
40:22when the search had been concluded we failed to find anything that could clearly tie adam into
40:30using chainsaws or being involved in that sort of industry there was nothing else significant
40:35found on either of the searches
40:39and also unfortunately we failed to locate the wedge
40:48have you traveled with dan graham and his range rover into this area
40:53i wouldn't have thought so like okay uh concluding the interview with adam corollas all right so i'm
41:00going to turn the interview i've got nothing further to ask some colleagues who've asked all the questions
41:04after you've conducted your interviews you've got to understand whether you are at a point where
41:11you could potentially go for charge we weren't at that point
41:16so on the evening of the 31st daniel graham and adam caruthers were bailed
41:24suspicion of criminal damage and had been bailed while inquiries there was an awful lot of work to do on
41:28both suspects
41:29this case had obviously been going for about a month with very little evidence and we needed
41:46something on their phones with one of our digital officers i reviewed dan's phone and we just opened
41:52the camera roll and then we went to the date of the the 27th 28th of september first one was a black
41:59video so we started to play the video
42:09you can kind of see some shadows on it and we could just hear sounds of wind
42:13and then all of a sudden we just heard sounds of a chainsaw
42:29we couldn't really believe what we were hearing
42:31and i remember thinking you need to ring callum i need to tell him now
42:41i received a phone call from kim she said there's a video
42:47so i rapidly put the phone down and traveled back to the northeast
42:50the video was very dark and grainy
43:00grainy
43:04it was undoubtedly the sound of a chainsaw
43:08and then there was the sound of a tree cracking
43:18and falling to the ground
43:21you can hear a tree crash into the floor
43:23i was uh astounded and i remember thinking this is it
43:40potentially you've got fantastic evidence but that has to be presented evidentially to prove
43:49that that is that tree because at the moment i was i had a black screen
43:56i spoke to our digital unit and said you know we need to get this all enhanced as fast as possible
44:05i continued to review this phone
44:10when i looked in the camera roll i could see a little image
44:13so i opened that one up next
44:21i'm not a wood expert but it does look like a bit of a wedge of a tree that had been cut out
44:26next to a chainsaw
44:29that surely can't actually be the bit of wood that we're looking for
44:32are they really going to be that silly to to cut it down carry it and then take a picture of it
44:37this photograph linked back to the tip-off that said that they'd retained a section of the tree
44:47but how do i prove that that wedge came from the sycamore tree
45:07this is the slab from the sycamore gap this surface here is the original cut
45:22it's a massive piece of history it's quite something
45:36we enlisted the help of a forensic botanist and he was able to identify firstly the fact that the image
45:43was of a piece of sycamore but then he started looking at the characteristics of the wedge
45:51photographs were taken of the slab and he was able to overlay
45:58the picture of the saw and the wedge in the back of the car
46:01this t-shape lined up perfectly with the t-shape that we see on the image of the wedge in the back of the range rover
46:19it's like putting the jigsaw piece in it just takes into place
46:23the scar affectionately nicknamed the harry potter scar is likely to have been damaged to the tree
46:33as it was growing it is unique as a fingerprint
46:37i would say it's um some significant evidence
46:50we had to get them rearrested they've got some tough questions to answer now we need to know what's been going on
46:59and the mystery continues tomorrow from nine or see the whole story now from root to branch on channel
47:05for streaming next wednesday at nine and narcissism faith and a shocking abuse of trust the biggest
47:11scandal in the history of the church see no evil back to this evening and weave a festive goggle box coming up next
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