Father Ted creator Graham Linehan has arrived for his court trial accused of harassing a transgender woman and damaging her phone – days after his arrest over social media posts.
The writer, behind television hits such as Father Ted, the IT Crowd and Motherland, arrived at Westminster Magistrates’ Court this morning shortly before the doors opened at 9am.
He smiled and posed for photographers, wearing a grey suit and a white shirt. The comedy writer held aloft a placard which read ‘Keep men out of women’s sports’.
Supporters, including Lord Young from the Free Speech Union, were present.
He told one supporter, in an apparent reference to his Heathrow arrest three days ago on another matter earlier this week: ‘I would have enjoyed the arrest a bit more if I knew what was happening.’
Linehan was seized by five armed guards upon his arrival at the airport, prompting accusations of a heavy handed approach to policing social media.
Today’s case relates to separate allegations that Linehan, 57, harassed trans woman Sophia Brooks by posting abusive comments about her on social media between October 11 and October 27 last year.
He is also charged with damaging her mobile phone to the value of £369 on October 27 last year.
Linehan hit the headlines earlier this week when he was detained by police accused of inciting violence on Twitter as he arrived back in the UK from his home in Scottdale, in the south-western US state of Arizona, ahead of today’s trial.
His arrest was based on a series of tweets he posted in April.
One of the posts said: ‘If a trans-identified male is in a female-only space, he is committing a violent, abusive act. Make a scene, call the cops and if all else fails, punch him in the balls.’
Another was a photograph of a trans-rights protest, with the comment ‘a photo you can smell’, with a follow-up post saying: ‘I hate them. Misogynists and homophobes. F*** em.’
Linehan said he had to be taken to hospital following his arrest because his blood pressure rocketed. He was later discharged from hospital and released by police on bail pending further inquiries.
Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch said Linehan’s arrest showed ‘values of free speech are being slowly eroded by people weaponising the law and using it for petty squabbling’.
Writing in today’s Daily Mail, she said: ‘The whole episode raises serious questions. What does it say about our country that someone can be flagged as they fly home from the US, not for terrorism, trafficking or fraud, but for expressing opinions online?’
Debate around his arrest became so strong that the head of the Metropolitan Police, Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, was forced to intervene with a statement yesterday which put him on collision course with the Government.
He defended his officers and said they were in an ‘impossible position’ due to the laws on hate speech, and said they should not be ‘policing toxic culture wars debates’.
Sir Mark said he would make suggestions to the Government about how laws governing social media posts could be changed, and is ready to test new approaches ‘within a matter of weeks’.
In his first statement after the controversy erupted, Sir Mark said: ‘While the decision to investigate and ultimately arrest the man was made within existing legislation, which dictates that a threat to punch someone from a protected group could be an offence, I understand the concern caused by such incidents given differing perspectives on the balance between free speech and the risks of inciting violence in the real world.
‘Most reasonable people would agree that genuine threats of physical violence against an identified person or group should be acted upon by officers.
‘Such actions can and do have serious and violent real-world implications.
‘But when it comes to lesser cases, where there is ambiguity in terms of intent and harm, policing has been left between a rock and a hard place by successive governments, who have given officers no choice but to record such incidents as crimes when they’re reported.
‘Then they are obliged to follow all lines of inquiry and take action as appropriate.
‘I don’t believe we should be policing toxic culture wars debates and officers are currently in an impossible position.’
‘We have a long history of free speech in this country. I’m very proud of that and I will always defend it.’
Sir Keir Starmer subsequently said that ‘we must ensure the police focus on the most serious issues’.
He told Prime Minister’s Questions: ‘The issues that matter most to our constituencies and all communities, and that includes tackling issues like anti-social behaviour, knife crime and violence.
And Health Secretary Wes Streeting suggested the Government could look at legislation if the law is ‘not getting the balance right’ on free speech, and said the Government wants ‘to see people being kept safe by policing streets, not just policing tweets’.
Senior Tory Sir James Cleverly said the arrest looked like a ‘real overreaction’ to what was ‘self-evidently a joke’.
Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick described the incident as ‘a complete waste of police time’, adding: ‘We desperately need to end this nonsense and go after actual criminals.’
The Bafta-winning Irishman has become an outspoken gender activist, supported by the lieks of Harry Potter creator JK Rowling.
But he has also described how his career – which included minor actor roles in comedies including I’m Alan Partridge – ‘fell away’ when he became embroiled in the transgender debate, and referred to himself once as ‘the most hated man on the internet’.
He was banned in 2020 from Twitter after writing ‘Men aren’t women tho’ before later being reinstated by X founder Elon Musk.
A long-awaited Father Ted musical was then axed in 2022 because of Linehan’s controversial political opinions.
When two venues cancelled his 2023 Edinburgh Fringe shows, the now-divorced Linehan opted to perform his set outside the Scottish Parliament.
The Dublin-born activist previously praised the Supreme Court’s decision to confirm that the word ‘woman’ refers to biological sex, meaning trans women are legally not women.
But he said ‘woke’ issues were permeating aspects of British life.
He said at the time: ‘The big problem we have is with TV commissioners. The artists are still out there but they have to get past these people who don’t really care about art. They care about imposing their beliefs on people.
‘If you look back at the 90s with Britpop, British art was famous all over the world and there was a real sense of excitement.
‘But over the last 10 years there’s been a dearth of notable stuff. Because these people have tied their hands and feet together.
‘It’s all very safe – almost trying not to get noticed.’
The trial is listed to last for one day.
