The two men convicted of chopping down the Sycamore Gap tree were suspects in an investigation into alleged homophobic assaults that took place around the same time they committed their infamous crime.

Daniel Graham, 39, from Carlisle, and Adam Carruthers, 32, from Wigton, were found guilty last week of cutting down the iconic tree at Hadrian’s Wall on 27 September 2023.

Nine days earlier, a man reported being doused in icing sugar and subjected to verbal abuse by two people at a layby in Cumbria often frequented by men seeking sexual encounters.

The CPS dropped the case more than a year later, but emails seen by the BBC confirm police prepared a file on Graham and Carruthers for prosecutors.

Just over a week before the tree was felled, a man – who the BBC has agreed not to name – was parked in the layby about 20 miles from Sycamore Gap.

“There was a knock on my window,” he said. “I looked across and there was this black jeep, so I wound my window down and the passenger got quite homophobic with me.”

A bag of icing sugar was then thrown into the man’s car before the other vehicle was driven off.

The victim said he had reported the incident to police the same night, giving officers a description of the vehicle and his recollection of the registration number. He was, however, unable to identify any individual involved.

The informant said he wished police had used his initial evidence to check CCTV at the time.

“They knew the date, they knew the type of vehicle it was, but they didn’t do anything,” he said.

Cumbria Police said checks had been carried out using the registration number provided by the victim, but these showed the vehicle linked to that number plate – which differed from that of Graham’s car by one letter – had not been in Cumbria.

The force added that it had been a “complex investigation” and all “evidential opportunities” had been explored.

An officer from Cumbria Police visited the victim in April 2024 following a development in the case.

Two men had been arrested in connection with the incidents and video evidence had been found on a phone belonging to one of them.

The victim was asked to watch “10 or 12” videos showing various men suffering homophobic abuse and, in some cases, having things thrown into their vehicles.

He said a video of another male victim, who he recognised, was particularly upsetting: “I could see the fear in his eyes. It was quite nasty, and it was all homophobic.”

After helping police identify some of the other men in the videos, and confirming his own appearance in some of them, he gave a formal statement in August 2024 but told police he could not definitively identify the driver.

Cumbria Police confirmed two men were arrested on suspicion of two assaults motivated by hate.

In December 2024 a case was presented to the Crown Prosecution Service relating to three victims across six offences.

But the CPS decided against bringing charges due to insufficient evidence, difficulties identifying the perpetrators and too much time having elapsed since one of the incidents.

The victim who spoke to the BBC says he was abused on two separate occasions. He decided to challenge the CPS decision, which meant he had to be told the suspects’ names.

In emails to the victim, seen by the BBC, detectives describe the CPS decision as “disappointing” and name Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers as the suspects.

“I knew the names were in my mind somewhere,” the victim said. “I Googled it and my words were ‘oh my God’, I realised who they were.”

Despite his appeal, the initial ruling not to charge the men was upheld.

The CPS said it encouraged victims of hate crime to report incidents to the police and that it would prosecute whenever its legal tests were met.

Graham and Carruthers, who are currently on remand awaiting sentencing for cutting down the Sycamore Gap tree, have been approached for comment.