A man who denies felling the Sycamore Gap tree has said his interest in the story was because he could not understand why it was making so many headlines, “almost as if someone had been murdered”.

Adam Carruthers, 32, told a jury: “It was just a tree.”

Carruthers and his former friend Daniel Graham, 39, are jointly charged with criminally felling the tree and damaging Hadrian’s Wall, where it had stood for more than 100 years.

Prosecutors alleged the pair were on a “moronic mission” to topple the tree and afterwards “revelled” in the national and international headlines that it made.

On Tuesday Carruthers gave evidence at Newcastle crown court where he denied having any responsibility. “I don’t know anything about it and I wasn’t there,” he said.

Asked why he showed such an interest in headlines and social media about the felling in the early hours of 28 September 2023, he said: “My understanding was it was just a tree, I couldn’t understand why everyone was sharing it, every second post was about this tree. I just couldn’t get my head round it.”

Asked by his barrister Andrew Gurney why he and Graham were messaging each other about the tree, he said: “I couldn’t really understand why there was such a major outbreak – it was almost as if someone had been murdered.”

Prosecutor Richard Wright KC asked Carruthers: “Is that what’s at the heart of this? When the rest of the world thought this isn’t just a tree and thought this was a terrible and wicked thing to do, you lost your bottle and couldn’t own up to it?”

Carruthers replied: “That’s not true.”

The court heard evidence that on the afternoon before the felling, Carruthers’ phone had been traced going from his partner’s home on Kirkbride airfield, Cumbria, to the Haydon Bridge area of Northumberland.

Graham’s defence barrister, Christopher Knox, accused Carruthers of being there on a “recce” before the tree was cut down.

Carruthers denied the accusation and told jurors he was taking his partner and two young children for a meal at the Metrocentre in Gateshead but they turned back, deciding to get a takeaway, because the baby was unsettled.

He agreed with Wright that it would would have been a three-hour round trip and the baby was just a few days out of hospital after a difficult birth.

The court has heard evidence of a number of messages between Graham and Carruthers including a forwarded Facebook post from a man called Kevin Hartness saying: “Some weak people that walk this earth … disgusting behaviour.”

In a voice note, Carruthers said: “I’d like to see Kevin Hartness launch an operation like we did last night … I don’t think he’s got the minerals.”

In court Carruthers said he did not say “we” but actually said “an operation like he did”.

The voice note was played four times. Carruthers said: “I must have got my words mixed up. I meant to say what he did.”

Graham, of Carlisle, and Carruthers, of Wigton, are jointly charged with causing criminal damage worth £622,191 to the tree. They are also charged with causing £1,144 of damage to Hadrian’s Wall, a Unesco world heritage site.

Graham and Carruthers deny all the charges against them.

The trial continues.