Graham Linehan, the co-creator of Father Ted, has received £25,000 in compensation and an apology from the Metropolitan police following his arrest at Heathrow airport last September over gender-critical social media posts. The 57-year-old was detained by armed officers after a 10-hour flight from Arizona and held for 12 hours at a nearby police station on suspicion of inciting violence related to three posts on X.
Met Police Apology and Policy Change
A Met police spokesperson said on Thursday: “We recognise the considerable distress caused to Mr Linehan, and have offered our sincere apologies. This case prompted a significant change, which means the Met no longer investigates non-crime hate incidents. We believe this will provide clearer direction for officers, reduce ambiguity and enable them to focus on matters that meet the threshold for criminal investigations.”
According to the Times, the force accepted in a letter to Linehan that there had been “shortcomings in the investigation, the arrest and the imposition of bail conditions.” The settlement was reached after a civil claim, and the Guardian understands the main concerns were over the systems and guidelines in place at the time.
Details of the Posts
The first post by Linehan, on 19 April, included a picture of a trans rally captioned: “A photo you can smell.” He followed that with a tweet saying: “I hate them. Misogynists and homophobes. F*** em.” The third, on 20 April, 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.”
Linehan insisted at the time that while he may have been guilty of making a “bad joke”, he had not been aiming to encourage violence. The investigation into his social media messages was dropped in October, after he was placed under bail conditions that banned him from posting on X.
Political Backlash and Other Legal Cases
The arrest provoked a political backlash, with Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch criticising the force’s actions as “thought-policing”, adding: “Sending five officers to arrest a man for a tweet isn’t policing, it’s politics.” This week, Linehan reposted a link to the story about the apology with the message: “Thank you for everything” to the campaigning group the Free Speech Union.
Last November, Linehan was cleared of harassing a transgender activist on social media but found guilty of criminal damage of their mobile phone outside a conference in London. He had denied harassing Sophia Brooks on social media between 11 and 27 October 2024, and a charge of criminal damage of their mobile phone on 19 October outside the Battle of Ideas conference in Westminster. Judge Clarke fined Linehan £500 and ordered him to pay costs of £650 and a statutory surcharge of £200. The conviction for damaging their mobile phone was also overturned on appeal.
