Walter Renwick was arrested after landmark tree was chopped down
A pensioner wrongly suspected of chopping the Sycamore Gap tree has told how he resorted to wearing a Rod Stewart wig to disguise himself in public.
Walter Renwick was arrested alongside a teenager soon after the world famous tree was felled in September 2023. But both were released without charge as detectives turned their attention to the real culprits, Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers, who are due to be sentenced this week.
Now Walter, 70, has told how he faced a campaign of hate in the aftermath of the crime and had to wear a disguise in public.
He said: “It was heartbreaking. There were police everywhere, drones flying around the valley, divers in the lake, they were 100 per cent certain I’d done it. Every time I went shopping in Haltwhistle or Hexham, people were nudging each other and saying ‘that’s him that cut the tree down’.
“I know it was daft but I put a Rod Stewart wig on so people didn’t spot me.”
Just days before the tree was cut down the Chronicle reported how Walter had been evicted from Plankey Mill Farm near Bardon Mill, Northumberland, where his family had lived for decades, by landowners Jesuits in Britain. The National Trust were said to among those who complained about his behaviour after he set up a campsite on the land.
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And that was wrongly believed to be the motive behind the criminal damage of the tree, which belongs to the National Trust. Walter’s land and property were searched by Northumbria Police officers soon after the overnight felling, which sent shockwaves across the World.
But in May this year a jury at Newcastle Crown Court convicted Graham, 39, and Carruthers, 32, both from the Carlisle area of Cumbria of criminal damage of the tree and part of Hadrian’s Wall.
“I just keep asking myself why they did it,” Walter told the BBC. “Was it just attention seeking?
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“I don’t know what it was but, for me at least, it’s over. Actually, you know, the tree, that was one thing… But losing my farm. That was the thing that hurt most of all.”
Jesuits in Britain said Mr Renwick’s father “gave up” the tenancy in 2008 and Mr Renwick did not meet the legal criteria to succeed his dad. He was offered a 10-year lease which was extended twice, “well beyond any legal obligation” on their part.