Father Ted co-creator Graham Linehan’s conviction for damaging cell phone of transgender activist is overturned after enchantment
Father Ted co-creator Graham Linehan, found guilty of damaging the mobile phone of a transgender activist during a dispute outside a conference, has had his conviction overturned.
Linehan, a prominent anti-transgender activist, was involved in a confrontation with Sophia Brooks outside the Battle Of Ideas conference in Westminster on October 19 2024.
The 57-year-old, who attended the two-day hearing at Southwark Crown Court in London in person, smiled and turned to supporters sitting in the public gallery when Mrs Justice Amanda Tipples ruled today his conviction for criminal damage should be overturned.
The judge, assisted in the proceedings by two magistrates, said: ‘Having considered all the evidence before us, we cannot be sure that the damage to the complainant’s phone was caused by Mr Linehan on the evening of the 19th of October 2024.
‘We therefore found Mr Linehan not guilty of the offence.’
The hearing yesterday was shown footage filmed on Ms Brooks’ phone in the moments leading up to the criminal damage incident.
While filming outside the venue, the activist, who was then aged 17, approached Linehan and asked: ‘Why do you think it is acceptable to call teenagers domestic terrorists?’
Graham Linehan outside Southwark Crown Court in London yesterday to appeal his conviction
Linehan steps out of a taxi outside Southwark Crown Court yesterday to appeal his conviction
On the footage, Linehan can be heard calling Ms Brooks 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 yesterday appeared to show Linehan grabbing or slapping the complainant’s phone out of her hands.
Linehan’s lawyer Sarah Vine KC told the judge the complainant was ‘determined’ to see Linehan convicted as part of a ‘campaign’ against the comedy writer for his anti-transgender activism.
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 cleared Linehan of harassing Ms Brooks with a series of social media posts before and after the incident.
She said his posts were ‘deeply unpleasant, insulting and even unnecessary’, but did not amount to ‘oppressive’ conduct.
The Bafta-winning writer was accused of harassment for branding Ms Brooks a ‘domestic terrorist’, a ‘groomer’ and an ‘incel’ in social media posts.
The Crown Prosecution Service previously issued a video of Linehan’s confrontation with Sophia Brooks outside the Battle Of Ideas conference in Westminster on October 19, 2024
Speaking outside the court this afternoon, Linehan accused the police of failing to ‘properly and fairly investigate’.
He said: ‘The decision of the court to throw out this case , is very welcome – but this case should never have got to court.
‘There has been a troubling pattern of police forces around the country to ‘believe’ trans-rights activists, time and time again, even when there has been overwhelming evidence that complaints have been made against gender critical campaigners, in bad faith.
‘The police have failed in their duty to properly and fairly investigate – preferring instead to support one side over the other in a debate. All this has done is erode the faith the public should be able to have in the police. We are sick of two-tier policing and I hope with today’s verdict it will end.
‘I have suffered greatly in my fight to protect women and children from what I believe to be a dangerous ideology. But I am proud that I have never given in and I will not do.
‘I have been lifted through support from friends and strangers, from women’s rights groups to London cabbies who have taken the time to stop and shake my hand.
‘I am very grateful to my legal team; Daniel Berke and Sarah Vine KC and to the team at the Free Speech Union.’
