Father Ted co-creator Graham Linehan has been paid £25,000 in compensation and received an apology from the Metropolitan Police after his arrest last year over gender-critical social media posts.
The 57-year-old writer was detained by armed officers at Heathrow Airport last September following a 10-hour flight from Arizona. He was arrested on suspicion of inciting violence in relation to three posts on X and held at a police station for 12 hours.
A Met Police spokesperson said the force recognised the “considerable distress” caused and offered sincere apologies. The case prompted a policy change meaning the Met no longer investigates non-crime hate incidents. The force acknowledged “shortcomings in the investigation, the arrest and the imposition of bail conditions”.
The posts included a picture of a trans rally captioned “a photo you can smell”, followed by tweets expressing hatred and suggesting punching a trans-identified male in the balls if found in a female-only space. Linehan maintained he had made a “bad joke” without intent to encourage violence. The investigation was dropped in October, with bail conditions that banned him from posting on X.
The arrest drew political backlash, with Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch describing it as “thought-policing”. Linehan thanked the Free Speech Union for its support. Last November, he was cleared of harassing a transgender activist but initially convicted of criminal damage of a mobile phone, a ruling later overturned on appeal.
