OV9

IanF wrote: Fri Sep 29, 2023 3:48 pm 22 million trees!? Must be a green nirvana!..

IanF wrote: Fri Sep 29, 2023 3:48 pm 22 million trees!? Must be a green nirvana!..

On the sixth day of the trial, Mr Carruthers took to the witness box where he started by denying he had anything to do with felling the tree or filming it.

His barrister Andrew Gurney asked why Mr Carruthers seemed so interested in the aftermath, exchanging screenshots of social media posts and press reports with his co-accused and swapping voice notes discussing it.

Mr Carruthers said he just "couldn't understand" the hysteria he was seeing on Facebook and he had wanted to talk about it with his friend.

"I didn't understand how a tree would be able to hit the headlines as much as it did," he said. "It was almost as if someone had been murdered."

He was asked about a voice note in which he said an online commenter, who criticised the vandals, lacked the "minerals" to "launch an operation like we did".

Mr Carruthers told jurors: "I think it's been interpreted wrong."

He said he had actually meant to say "he" instead of "we," referring to whoever who had felled the tree although he had "no idea" who that might be.

He was asked about mobile phone tracking data which showed him travelling to a spot about four miles way from the tree the afternoon before it was felled.

Mr Graham's [SR note - the other defendant, trying to blame Carruthers and claiming to have nothing to do with it - despite his car being used for transport and his phone used to film the act] legal team suggested he was "doing a reconnoitre" of the tree, but Mr Carruthers claimed he was taking his partner and their new-born daughter on an impromptu excursion to the Metrocentre for food, turning around when the baby would not settle.

Mr Wright asked if there were not restaurants in Carlisle they could have visited rather than make a three-hour round trip on an afternoon when storms were forecast to hit the area.

Mr Carruthers replied the restaurants in Carlisle were "not the best" and the Metrocentre would be better.

duncs500 wrote: Fri May 09, 2025 4:41 pm I appreciate that in a position of denying a charge they won't say, but it would be fascinating to hear their explanation as to why they did it. Given the premeditation and effort involved, there has to more than just "we were pissed and thought it would be funny LOLZ".