BOOZER IS OUT OF HIS TREE; Chainsaw carnage at pub.

Byline: GORDON CURRIE 

A DRINKER chopped down a giant tree with a chainsaw to stop it blocking the sun in his favourite beer garden.

Forestry worker Sean Hutchison woke sleeping residents when he hacked down the tree at 4am.

His antics left a main road blocked when the trunk of the tree toppled.

The incident initially left the residents of the Perthshire village of Birnam - famed for being the home of the last oak in Shakespeare's Macbeth - completely baffled.

But it emerged Hutchison, of Dunkeld, had targeted the giant tree because the leaves and branches stopped the sun shining on the walled beer garden at the Merryburn Hotel.

At Perth Sheriff Court, Hutchison, 44, admitted endangering the public.

John Malpass, prosecuting, told the court that residents in Station Road were woken by Hutchison's chainsaw.

John Chapman looked out to see Hutchison - who he knew - chopping down the tree and watched as the falling trunk narrowly missed his car.

Mr Chapman's wife Jacqueline said: "If he had cut it the wrong way, it would have been on top of the house." The case was deferred for reports.

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CAPTION(S):

Saw point: Pub fan Hutchison