Father Ted creator Graham Linehan said he will continue to stand up to trans activists after being found not guilty of harassment.
The 57-year-old said he was ‘very pleased’ to have been acquitted after 18-year-old Sophia Brooks said she was ‘alarmed and distressed’ by Linehan’s social media posts about her.
But district judge Briony Clarke said that while Linehan’s 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’ testimony in court, describing her as giving ‘less than truthful evidence’.
Linehan was found guilty of criminal damage after throwing Ms Brooks’ phone outside a conference in London a year ago, and was ordered to pay nearly £1,400 in fines and costs.
Speaking outside Westminster Magistrates’ Court today, Linehan said he would appeal the criminal damage conviction, and said he hoped his acquittal for harassment would put an end to gender critical commentators such as himself being targeted by members of the trans community.
He said: ‘I’m very pleased by today’s verdict.
‘There are a group of dangerous men who are determined to bully women and girls, and to misuse the courts and police in furtherance of a misogynistic agenda.
Graham Linehan, co-creator of Father Ted and other British sitcoms, denied harassing a young trans activist
Linehan, who now lives in Arizona, arrived at Westminster Magistrates’ Court wheeling a suitcase
‘I’m proud to have stood up to them and I will continue to do so.’
He previously described how he lost his income and his marriage to the writer Helen Serafinowicz due to his involvement in gender critical activism.
He told reporters outside court: ‘It’s what trans activists do.
‘We have a phrase, punishment is a process, and they like to put people through these kinds of experiences, to make them frightened about standing up to them.
‘But I’m hoping that with this judgment, you know, people in future won’t be subject to those kinds of tactics.’
Linehan underlined his determination to stand up for his beliefs by posting a video of Ms Brooks at a previous conference, describing the complainant as ‘the creepy little thug who brought the action against me’.
Using the male pronouns to describe Ms Brooks, as he did throughout the three-day trial, Linehan added: ‘With any luck he’ll find it harder to abuse the system in future.’
Linehan has been outspoken on trans issues, and even found himself arrested by armed police as he arrived at Heathrow Airport for his harassment trial, accused of allegedly inciting violence in relation to three posts about trans issues unrelated to Ms Brooks.
Linehan (centre) gave a brief statement to reporters outside court today
Prosecutors later dropped the case against him.
And he was unrelenting in his defence of women’s rights when he arrived for his harassment trial, donning a placard which read: ‘Keep men out of women’s sports’.
Prosecutor Julia Faure Walker said Linehan had posted about Ms Brooks ‘relentlessly’, and that his posts were ‘oppressive’.
The court was told that 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 Linehan and asked: ‘Why do you think it is acceptable to call teenagers domestic terrorists?’
The transgender activist told the court that 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 Linehan grabbing the complainant’s phone.
Asked why he threw the phone and did not return it, Linehan said: ‘My adrenaline was up, I was angry. I guess that feels like surrender so I threw it away.’
Linehan queued outside the court ahead of the verdict
He said he did not accept that damage to Ms Brooks’ phone was caused by him, and said he threw it to prevent himself being harassed.
The court previously heard that Linehan had posted on social media about someone with the name ‘Tarquin’, which prosecutor Ms Faure Walker said was the defendant’s ‘derogatory term’ for the complainant.
Asked if he had any intention to incite any violent action, Linehan said: ‘No, because the violence and toxicity in the trans debate comes from the trans side.’
He added: ‘The nature of trans activism is that it is very male. It’s abusive, it’s sadistic.
‘The police are basically working for trans activists these days.
‘They don’t understand the issue and they believe everything trans activists say to them. A lot of institutions have been captured by trans ideology.’
He added: ‘I hate bullies and the bullies who bully women are the worst of all, so it got me very angry.’
Ms Brooks gave evidence to the trial, held over three days in September and October, in which she repeatedly described feeling ‘alarmed and distressed’ by Linehan’s behaviour.
But district judge Clarke said she had ‘concerns about the credibility of the complainant and the answers which they gave the court’.
She said: ‘I am not prepared to say that they have given evidence which is entirely incapable of belief and in some aspects, accept that they were giving the court honest evidence.
‘However, I am not prepared to find that they have given me entirely truthful evidence. There are a number of inconsistencies or areas of concern which leads me to this conclusion.’
Linehan denied one count of harassment and a further charge of criminal damage.