Father Ted writer Graham Linehan cleared of harassing transgender activist
Graham Linehan has been cleared of harassing a transgender activist, as ITV News Reporter Ravneet Nandra reports
Father Ted co-creator Graham Linehan has been cleared of harassing a transgender activist on social media but found guilty of criminal damage to their mobile phone outside a conference in London last year.
The 57-year-old flew in from Arizona to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in person on Tuesday, where judgment was delivered by District Judge Briony Clarke.
Linehan denied harassing Sonia Brooks on social media between October 11 and October 27 last year, and a charge of criminal damage to their mobile phone on October 19 last year outside the Battle of Ideas conference in Westminster.
Reading a summary of her judgment, the judge said she was not satisfied that Linehan’s conduct amounted to harassment or that the complainant was as distressed as they made themselves out to be.
She said that Linehan had not tagged the activist in his social media posts, bar one, and that while his comments were “deeply unpleasant, insulting and even unnecessary,” they were not “oppressive or unacceptable beyond merely unattractive, annoying or irritating.”
The judge found Linehan had taken Brooks’ phone because he was “angry and fed up”, and had damaged it by knocking it to the ground.
The trial heard that Brooks had begun taking photographs of delegates at the event during a speech by Fiona McAnena, director of campaigns at Sex Matters.
Outside the event, the activist asked Linehan: “Why do you think it is acceptable to call teenagers domestic terrorists?”
In response, the court heard that Linehan had called Brooks a “sissy porn-watching scumbag,” a “groomer” and a “disgusting incel,” with the complainant responding: “You’re the incel, you’re divorced.”
Prosecutor, Julia Faure Walker, told the court that Linehan had written “repeated, abusive, unreasonable” social media posts about Brooks.
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The comedy writer, who has well-publicised strong views on gender issues, said his “life was made hell” by trans activists, adding that the complainant was a “young soldier in the trans activist army”.
Using male pronouns, the writer added: “He was misogynistic, he was abusive, he was snide.
“He depended on his anonymity to get close to people and hurt them, and I wanted to destroy that anonymity.”
Earlier this year, the Metropolitan Police announced it would stop investigating “non-crime hate incidents” after it emerged that Linehan would face no further action over separate social media posts concerning transgender issues.
The 57-year-old Irish comedy writer was arrested at Heathrow Airport after flying in from Arizona in September by the Met Police on suspicion of inciting violence over three posts he had made on X.
The arrest sparked controversy, with Conservative politicians and Harry Potter author JK Rowling among those who criticised the arrest.
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