One of the men whowas snared after cops used his complex love life to .

Daniel Graham, who was Adam Carruthers for chopping down the landmark, is said to have kept his mobile with him at all times due to his "complicated" love life. Graham's phone was later traced going to and from the . At one point, he told Carruthers that his girlfriend had even "tracked his phone" to monitor his movements, admitting he had turned it off so she did not know where he was.

By his own admission, the yob was a "man with no friends" - with his only visitor outside of work being his on-off girlfriend, Lisa Brown, who he would constantly refer to as his "bird". He in a caravan next to the ramshackle huts used to store equipment for his groundwork business at Millbeck Bridge, near , Cumbria.

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Graham had been disowned by members of his family after his father Michael hanged himself on June 6, 2021. He was involved in a bitter dispute with his paternal grandmother Joan Graham at his father's funeral.

Joan, 86, did not have a good word for him. "He hasn't been part of my life for a few years and I'm happy for it to stay that way," she said. "I don't think he'll cope well in jail but that's his own fault."

Mrs Graham fell out with her grandson at the funeral of her son, who she'd found hanging in the loft of her home in Carlisle. Refuse worker Michael Graham had been the one constant in Daniel's life , especially after his mother, Karen, left the family home.

As Karen began a new relationship, Michael Graham's mental health deteriorated and he moved in with his mother. On June 6, 2021 she found her son's body after he hanged himself in the loft at her semi-detached home on the same estate. Daniel Graham was distraught at his father's death and fell out with his mother after the tragedy.

Joan added: "The last words he spoke to me were about this time last year. I was crossing the road on a pedestrian crossing and he pipped his horn and I looked up and he shouted 'Hey, you, f**k off'. He started carrying on and shouted at me at my son's funeral and I haven't spoken about him properly since. I think he will be scared of going to jail. "

A neighbour in the village, Grinsdale Bridge, close to Graham's ramshackle home, said: "Daniel is a sociopath and a bully. Every reasonable complaint he received about this monstrosity he built was met with threats and aggression.

"I feel certain that he was the driving force behind what happened at Sycamore Gap because Adam doesn't have the brains to plan such a thing."

His working relationship with Carruthers began when he asked him to repair his father's old Land Rover for his funeral in 2021; Carruthers agreed and worked for several nights to get the work done.

They travelled together on jobs, spending time together at each other's places of work, though Graham denied Carruthers ever stayed over at his home, telling jurors that he was not a 'p****er'.

Their friendship ended in acrimony and disaster when Graham agreed to take Carruthers to cut down the Sycamore Gap shortly after the birth of Carruthers daughter on Sept 16, 2023.

Graham made an anonymous 101 call to police telling them that Carruthers had cut down the tree; the act was filmed on his phone, and police were able to enhance the footage to show a man wielding the chainsaw.

Graham said that man was Carruthers, captured in the midst of the high winds and rain brought by Storm Agnes on the dark moorland by , bringing it down in the spot where it had been growing for 150 years.

Graham protested his innocence on his page, and posted photos of his co-accused Carruthers in a post on December 1, just days before he was due to stand trial at .

In one of the images was a 'long saw' which may have been used to fell the wall. The saw used was never traced by police.

Graham had a grudge against authorities who rejected his bid to live near Hadrian's Wall. He had made an application for a 'Lawful Development Certificate' in 2022.

The ground worker had taken up residence in a caravan next to his stables at Millbeck Stables on the edge of Carlisle, Cumbria, within Hadrian's Wall's UNESCO World Heritage site 'buffer zone'

Residents and planning officials from Beaumont Parish Council, a remote Cumbrian rural community, told how they felt threatened by Graham's 'dominant and oppressive behaviour'.

The council rejected his retrospective bid to live on the site of his Millbeck Stables and warned he faced eviction. In a 'decision and reasons report', Graham was told that the application was 'far beyond a replacement dwelling' as he had claimed.

One of the reasons for objecting to his plans was because of its proximity to Hadrian's Wall. "The application site is located approximately 100m south west from Hadrian's Wall vallum and within the World Heritage Site's buffer zone," the documents state.

Locals said heavy plant vehicles were regularly going in and out of the property with several 'near misses' on the rural roads.

A large burial plot, apparently for a dead horse, could also clearly be seen from the gates to the property, decorated with lions' heads.

A final letter of refusal was made in April, 2023. The Sycamore Gap tree was felled little more than five months later. Several locals objected to his application to live on the site.

In a decision posted just before his trial, Cumberland council's final ruling stated that he will be evicted from the plot of land. So he will have no home to go to when he gets out of prison.

When he was charged with felling the tree, a neighbour told of his grudge against the authorities. "When he was refused permission to live there, many people thought he said 'right, I will show them'," said one woman, who declined to be named.

"They thought that could have motivated him to do it. His site grew and grew, there were big lorries going back and forth all the time.

"He built a mound to hide what was going on there. When we saw all the police vehicles there, after the tree was felled, we initially thought it was to do with the hunt for a missing person. Later, it became apparent that he had been questioned over the tree."

She added: "His behaviour did not change once he was arrested. He still had people going back and forth at all hours of the day and night."

The bitter family feud left Graham, a keen horseman, living alone at the remote property for years. He was brought up on Carlisle's Harraby estate. He lived with mum Karen and dad Michael.

A former neighbour said: "Dan loved horses and he had his own carriage which he used to hire out for brides on their wedding day. It was his pride and joy and he kept it in pristine condition. I can't speak badly of him, he was good to his neighbours and used to take the kids around the block in his carriage.

"It was a shock when I heard he'd been accused of cutting down that tree, it's so senseless and doesn't square with the lad we knew when he lived in Harraby. He was close to his dad and took it hard when he lost him. He just seemed to lose his way."

The only time Graham showed any emotion - apart from anger - giving evidence at Newcastle crown court was when the death of his dad was mentioned.

He admitted that he did not have any friends, saying: "I don't go out, I don't do very much, you could say I am anti social. I don't have much time for people."