Graham Linehan calls Father Ted star Ardal O’Halnon ‘a coward’ in transgender row – as comedy author pronounces he’s interesting over his conviction for throwing a trans activist’s cellphone

Father Ted creator Graham Linehan has called Ardal O’Hanlon a ‘coward’ for criticising his transgender views. 

The Irish comedy writer also accused the actor, who played Father Dougal McGuire in the Channel 4 comedy, of letting down his wife and daughters over his stance. 

‘The ideology I’ve spent years fighting has real consequences for women and girls,’ Linehan wrote in The Telegraph. 

‘It has put rapists in women’s prisons. It has dismantled single-sex spaces that exist to protect the vulnerable. It has ended the careers of many women who dared to speak up. And it has subjected children to what will one day be recognised as a crime against humanity.

‘These aren’t abstract positions I’ve taken up for fun. But Ardal couldn’t be bothered to find out whether I might be right. That’s not a disagreement. That’s a failure of character.’

The former comedy writer, who now lives in Arizona, has been outspoken on trans issues. He has previously described how he lost his income and his marriage to the writer Helen Serafinowicz due to his involvement in gender critical activism.

The 57-year-old was last month acquitted of harassment after 18-year-old Sophia Brooks said she was ‘alarmed and distressed’ by his social media posts about her.

But he was found guilty of criminal damage over an incident involving her phone outside a conference in London a year ago, and ordered to pay nearly £1,400 in fines and costs.

The writer has launched an appeal over his conviction for throwing the trans activist’s phone, saying the ‘heat and pressure’ of being on trial meant he failed to ‘express’ himself properly.

Confirming that an appeal will now be heard, Mr Linehan said he was ‘looking forward to it in a way that probably isn’t healthy’.

In an update on his website – using the male pronoun in relation to his accuser – Mr Linehan defended his social media posts about Ms Brooks, writing ‘I stand by every word’.

But he wrote: ‘In my trial, under the heat and pressure of cross examination, I did not express myself as well as I wanted to and struggled to get across quite how awful Brooks’ behaviour was to me.

‘He had used his phone all day to video women and then me. He was using his phone as a tool of harassment.

‘When I tried to move away, he followed. When I turned, he turned. He would not have stopped unless I took action.

‘That’s probably all I can say until the appeal.

‘So for more drama, you’ll have to wait for the sequel to what many are already calling ‘The Trial of the Century’!

‘The appeal will be a complete rehearing of the evidence, this time in the Crown Court.

‘I’m told my barrister Sarah Vine will have the opportunity to properly examine just how reliable this particular witness really is.

‘I’m looking forward to it in a way that probably isn’t healthy.’

Mr Linehan’s legal costs are being assisted by an appeal set up by the Free Speech Union which has raised more than £190,000.

It said his criminal damage conviction for throwing Ms Brooks’ phone was ‘regrettable since it gives carte blanche to far left activists to continue filming people attending debates and talks they disapprove of, an intimidation tactic designed to scare people away’.

Acquitting Mr Linehan of harassment at Westminster Magistrates’ Court last month, District Judge Briony Clarke said while his comments were ‘deeply unpleasant and even unnecessary’, they were not ‘oppressive or unacceptable beyond merely unattractive, annoying or irritating’.

She also cast doubt on Ms Brooks’s testimony in court, describing her as giving ‘less than truthful evidence’.

The court was told that Mr Linehan and the activist met for the first time in person outside the Battle of Ideas conference in Westminster on October 19 last year.

While filming outside the venue, Ms Brooks approached Mr Linehan and asked: ‘Why do you think it is acceptable to call teenagers domestic terrorists?’

The transgender activist told the court that Mr Linehan had called them a ‘sissy porn-watching scumbag’, a ‘groomer’ and a ‘disgusting incel’ – meaning involuntarily celibate – with the complainant responding ‘you’re the incel, you’re divorced’.

A video played to the court appeared to show Mr Linehan grabbing the complainant’s phone.

Asked why he threw the phone and did not return it, Mr Linehan said: ‘My adrenaline was up, I was angry. I guess that feels like surrender so I threw it away.’

He said he did not accept that damage to Ms Brooks’s phone was caused by him, and said he threw it to prevent himself being harassed.

In September, Graham was met by armed police when he touched down at Heathrow Airport. 

Commenting on the arrest, Ardal O’Hanlon admitted he hasn’t seen Graham much since he starred on the show, and is ‘baffled’ why he’s become so involved in ‘culture wars.’

He told The Sunday Times: ‘I still get on great with everyone, though I haven’t seen much of the show’s creator Graham Linehan and am baffled as to why he got involved in the culture wars.

‘I feel sorry for him; he’s entitled to his opinions but the way he presented them made it confrontational.’