In an “important victory for free speech”, Father Ted creator Graham Linehan was found not guilty of harassment over posts made on social media about a transgender activist.
Linehan, one of the most acclaimed comedy writers of his generation and an outspoken critic of transgenderism, was arrested in September at Heathrow airport in London by five armed Metropolitan Police officers after returning to the UK from the United States.
He was arrested over suspicion of inciting violence over a series of posts he made in October of 2024 in relation to trans activist Sophia Brooks, a biologically male transgender individual who identifies as a woman.
According to the Times of London, Westminster Magistrates’ Court District Judge Briony Clarke cleared Linehan of harassing Brooks, with Clarke finding that she did not believe the activist “was as alarmed or distressed” as had been claimed over Linehan’s social media posts.
However, the judge did find Linehan guilty of criminal damage for knocking Brooks’ phone to the ground when confronted outside of a Battle of Ideas conference in London last year.
Speaking outside of the courtroom, the IT Crowd writer said: “The judge found me and the women who gave evidence on my behalf to be credible, honest witnesses, and said that my actions were not criminal and did not constitute harassment.
“The judge commented that the complainant, a well-known trans activist, was not truthful. There are a group of dangerous men who are determined to bully women and girls, and to misuse the courts and police in furtherance of a misogynistic agenda.
“I’m proud to have stood up to them and I will continue to do so.”
Linehan is also reportedly set to launch an appeal against the criminal damage conviction, with the Free Speech Union quickly announcing that it would fund the suit.
Lord Young of Acton, director of the Free Speech Union, said that the dismissal of the harassment charge was “an important victory for free speech, since it makes it less likely that people who express gender-critical views on social media or who ‘misgender’ trans people in future will be arrested under suspicion of committing a criminal offence.”
However, he argued that the criminal damage conviction “gives carte blanche to far-Left activists” to film debate attendees whom they disapprove of as an “intimidation tactic designed to scare people away”.
“Admittedly, the screen of Brooks’s phone smashed when Graham knocked it out of his hand. But it’s important to bear in mind that hoping to provoke an intemperate reaction is often the reason the activists film their opponents. The idea is to record them lashing out and then to post that footage on social media, hoping to get them into trouble with their employers. If something ends up getting damaged, so much the better since the activists can then lodge a complaint with the police,” Young wrote in The Telegraph.
The controversy surrounding Linehan’s arrest in September has already led to some rollback of Britain’s draconian speech restrictions. Indeed, last month, London’s Met Police announced that they would no longer investigate so-called ‘Non-Crime Hate Incidents’.
While NCHIs, as their name implies, do not rise to the level of an actual crime, recording what typically amounts to insults can have serious ramifications for the accused, given that some employers can access the file as part of an employment background check. It is also difficult to clear such an accusation, as the police often do not inform the person that they have even been accused in the first place.
Although the Met’s decision to stop investigating NCHIs was characterised as a significant win for free speech, the police force did not say it would no longer record such incidents.
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