BY: DM
Published 1 hour ago
Graham Linehan just walked out of a London courtroom with the most serious allegation against him wiped away, but he’s not walking out clean. The “Father Ted” and “The IT Crowd” co-creator was cleared of harassing a transgender teen activist online. However, the judge found him guilty of criminal damage for knocking her phone to the ground during a confrontation outside a conference. Here is how the case unfolded and where it stands after the judge’s verdict.
Graham Linehan Was Found Guilty of One Charge
According to Reuters, District Judge Briony Clarke at Westminster Magistrates’ Court ruled that Linehan’s posts about 18-year-old trans activist Sophia Brooks (who was 17 at the time) were “deeply unpleasant” but did not meet the legal threshold for harassment. She did, however, rule that Linehan intentionally damaged Brooks’s phone. She fined him £500, added £650 in costs, and issued a £200 surcharge. He will not serve jail time.
The case goes back to October 2024, when Linehan started posting repeatedly about Brooks on X (formerly Twitter). Prosecutors said he made more than 20 posts between Oct. 11 and 27, using terms like “psycho” and “domestic terrorist” while referring to her activism. Brooks told the court that the online attention left her “alarmed and distressed,” per Reuters.
The situation escalated on Oct. 19, 2024, at the Battle of Ideas conference in Westminster. Brooks attended the event to take photos of delegates during a speech by Sex Matters campaigner Fiona McAnena. Outside the venue, she confronted Linehan and asked why he believed it was acceptable to call teenagers “domestic terrorists.” Evidence presented in court showed that Linehan responded with insults, then took her phone and knocked it to the ground, damaging the device, which was valued at around £369. He later claimed Brooks provoked him and said he acted in the heat of the moment. In April, prosecutors charged Linehan with harassment and criminal damage in connection with his posts and the confrontation.
Linehan Escapes Jail Time
Judge Clarke found that Linehan grabbed for Brooks’s phone and knocked it to the ground because he was “angry and fed up,” not because he was trying to prevent a crime or protect himself. That behavior constituted criminal damage rather than self-defense. She also ruled that the offence did not qualify as a hate crime based on gender identity. Linehan will not face jail time, but he must pay the ordered fines within 28 days, according to AP News.
Linehan has spent years at the center of the UK’s debate over trans rights and free speech, and he has repeatedly clashed with police over his social media posts. In September, armed officers arrested him at Heathrow Airport on suspicion of inciting violence over separate posts about trans women, according to CBS News. One of the posts suggested that people should “make a scene” and, if necessary, “punch” a trans woman “in the balls” if she entered a female-only space. Authorities later dropped the incitement case, and the Metropolitan Police announced that they will no longer investigate so-called “non-crime hate incidents” in cases like his.
Does Linehan’s history with police influence how you see this verdict? Comment below!
