Father Ted co-creator Graham Linehan has been cleared of harassing a transgender activist on social media but found guilty of criminal damage to their mobile phone. The verdict was delivered at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Tuesday.
The 57-year-old Irish comedy writer, who flew from Arizona to attend the hearing, denied harassing Sophia Brooks on social media between 11 and 27 October 2024. He also denied a charge of criminal damage to Brooks's phone on 19 October 2024 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. Linehan's lawyer, Sarah Vine KC, requested 28 days to pay the full amount.
The court heard that Brooks had been photographing delegates during a speech by Fiona McAnena of the gender-critical campaign group Sex Matters. Outside the event, Brooks asked Linehan: 'Why do you think it is acceptable to call teenagers domestic terrorists?' Linehan responded by calling Brooks a 'sissy porn-watching scumbag', a 'groomer' and a 'disgusting incel'.
The judge found that Linehan took Brooks's phone because he was 'angry and fed up', and damaged it by knocking it to the ground. She ruled that the offence was not aggravated by Brooks being transgender, but was aggravated because Brooks was 17 at the time. She added that she was 'not sure to the criminal standard' that Linehan had demonstrated hostility based on transgender identity, and did not find Brooks 'was as alarmed or distressed' as portrayed.
Prosecutor Julia Faure Walker told the court Linehan had written 'repeated, abusive, unreasonable' social media posts about Brooks, whom he referred to as Tarquin. Linehan said his 'life was made hell' by trans activists and described Brooks as a 'young soldier in the trans activist army'. He added: 'He was misogynistic, he was abusive, he was snide... I wanted to destroy that anonymity.'
