Father Ted’s Graham Linehan cleared of harassing transgender activist
The comedy writer flew into the UK from the US for the judgment
Father Ted co-creator Graham Linehan has been cleared of harassing a transgender activist, but found guilty of criminal damage to her mobile phone.
Linehan, 57, flew in from Arizona and appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in person on Tuesday to hear District Judge Briony Clarke deliver the judgment.
Linehan had denied harassing Sophia Brooks on social media between 11-27 October 2024 and a charge of criminal damage to her mobile phone on 19 October 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 she made herself out to be.
She said that Linehan had not tagged Ms Brooks in his social media posts, bar one.
While his comments were “deeply unpleasant, insulting and even unnecessary”, they were not “oppressive or unacceptable beyond merely unattractive, annoying or irritating”, she said.
However, the judge found that Linehan had taken Ms Brooks’s phone because he was “angry and fed up”, and had damaged it by knocking it to the ground.
The judge ruled that she was “not sure to the criminal standard” that Linehan had demonstrated hostility based on the complainant being transgender, and therefore this did not aggravate his offence.
He was fined £500 and ordered to pay costs of £650 and a statutory surcharge of £200.
Linehan’s lawyer Sarah Vine KC asked that he be given 28 days to pay the full amount.
The court previously heard that Ms Brooks had begun taking photographs of delegates at the event during a speech by Fiona McAnena, the director of campaigns at Sex Matters.
Outside the event, Ms Brooks asked Linehan: “Why do you think it is acceptable to call teenagers domestic terrorists?”
In response, the court heard that Linehan had called Ms Brooks a “sissy porn-watching scumbag”, a “groomer” and a “disgusting incel”.
The complainant responded: “You’re the incel, you’re divorced.”
Prosecutor Julia Faure Walker earlier told the court that Linehan had written “repeated, abusive, unreasonable” social media posts about Ms Brooks.
The comedy writer said that his “life was made hell” by trans activists, adding that Ms Brooks was a “young soldier in the trans activist army”.
Linehan repeatedly referred to Ms Brooks as “he” throughout the trial.
“He was misogynistic, he was abusive, he was snide,” Linehan said.
“He depended on his anonymity to get close to people and hurt them, and I wanted to destroy that anonymity.”