The Daily Telegraph - Saturday
Police act like goon squad for trans activists, says Linehan
Father Ted co-creator hits out at ‘useful idiots’ as conviction of criminal damage is overturned
GRAHAM LINEHAN has demanded that the police stop acting as a “goon squad” for trans activists.
The co-creator, 57, claimed police were being used as “useful idiots” after accusing them of failing to “properly and fairly investigate” allegations made against him by trans activist Sophia Brooks.
Mr Linehan was cleared of harassingMs Brooks on social media but convicted of criminal damage after snatching the complainant’s mobile phone and throwing it to the ground outside the Battle of Ideas conference in Westminster on Oct 19, 2024.
The Irish comedy writer has now had his criminal damage conviction overturned at Southwark Crown Court after Mrs Justice Amanda Tipples said it was not clear if he had caused the damage to the phone.
Speaking to after the ruling, the writer said: “This recent case is only the latest of ten years of being harassed by trans activists, using police as useful idiots, enforcers and goon squad.
“For some reason, the police seem very ready to believe men dressed as women, but not ready, at all, to believe women – who are women.
“I’m hoping this will give them a little bit more pause when they are being used as a tool by, frankly, psychotic trans activists.”
Earlier, Mr Linehan accused police of “failing in their duty to properly and fairly investigate” by choosing to support the claims of trans-rights activists against gender-critical campaigners “even when there has been overwhelming evidence that complaints have been made... in bad faith”.
The hearing on Thursday was shown footage filmed on the trans- activist’s phone in the moments leading up to the criminal damage incident.
While filming outside the venue, the activist, who was then aged 17, approached Mr Linehan and asked: “Why do you think it is acceptable to call teenagers domestic terrorists?”
On the footage, Mr Linehan can be heard calling the trans activist a “sissy porn-watching scumbag,” a “groomer” and a “disgusting incel”, with the complainant responding: “You’re the incel, you’re divorced.”
Another video played in court appeared to show Mr Linehan grabbing or slapping the complainant’s phone out of the activist’s hands.
Sarah Vine KC, Mr Linehan’s lawyer, told the judge the complainant was “determined” to see Mr Linehan convicted as part of a “campaign” against the comedy writer for his gender critical views. The complainant, Ms Vine said, “is seeking to achieve a victory against Mr Linehan because he is a high-profile opponent, by misusing the justice system”.
Last November, District Judge Briony Clarke also cleared Linehan of harassing the trans activist with a series of social media posts before and after the incident. She said that his posts were “deeply unpleasant, insulting and even unnecessary”, but did not amount to “oppressive” conduct.
Mr Linehan was accused of harassment for branding the activist a “domestic terrorist”, a “groomer” and an “incel” in social media posts.
Earlier this year Mr Linehan told the US Congress that Sir Keir Starmer had reduced freedom of speech in Britain.