Graham Linehan won’t be silenced by activist cry-bullies

Graham Linehan, gender-critical activist and creator of the sitcom, Father Ted, has been found not guilty of harassing transgender activist Sophia Brooks online.

At Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, Judge Briony Clarke ruled that, although Linehan had made multiple ‘deeply unpleasant, insulting and even unnecessary’ comments to Brooks on social media (insults included ‘psycho’, ‘domestic terrorist’ and ‘groomer’), these did not amount to harassment. It was, however, found that Linehan had ‘deliberately whacked’ the campaigner’s phone from his hand and thrown it into the road following a confrontation last year. For this, Linehan has been slapped with a fine of £500 (although he is looking to appeal the conviction).

The row began when Brooks accosted Linehan outside the 2024 Battle of Ideas conference in central London. Having been followed and filmed by Brooks for a good part of the day already, Linehan, in his own words, was ‘angry and fed up’. Brooks’s video shows Linehan appearing to snatch the phone, then using his own to record Brooks. Although Brooks claimed this incident caused him ‘alarm’ and ‘distress’, the judge countered that he looked ‘visibly happy’ in the footage of the exchange.

Since then, Linehan has faced over a year of legal uncertainty – and worse. In fact, the altercation played a role in Linehan’s now infamous arrest at Heathrow earlier this year, when he was greeted by five armed police officers over a handful of jokes. Linehan, who had fled London for Arizona last year, was returning to the UK to face the court for this very trial.

Of course, most gender-critical men and women are unlikely to find themselves apprehended like a terrorist at Heathrow as Linehan was. But the social ostracism, violent threats and professional punishment he has faced for speaking his mind are an all too common occurence. From huge names like JK Rowling, who faces relentless death and rape threats, to ordinary Brits like nurse Sandie Peggie or Darlington nurses, who have faced punishment at work for daring to ask for female-only spaces, it seems no one is safe from the trans mob. If you question the farcical belief that men can become women, then trans activists will try to tear your life apart. There is a huge cost to coming out as a TERF.

‘It’s what they do’, said Linehan after the trial, when asked about the impact the gruelling legal process has had on him. ‘The punishment is the process… [Trans activists] like to put people through these kinds of experiences to make them frightened about standing up to them.’

Given how many people we have seen dragged over hot coals for refusing to drink the trans Kool-Aid, I dare say he’s correct. It would be far easier not to challenge the ‘women can have penises’ thing and live a life without fears of arrest looming over you. For men especially, the idea of a chick with a dick loitering in the bathroom can be dismissed as something more comedic than threatening – a meme of our time. Thankfully, there are people like Linehan who have had the bull-headed bravery to stand their ground.

‘There is a group of dangerous men who are determined to bully women and girls… [They] misuse the courts and police in furtherance of a misogynistic agenda’, he said. ‘I’m proud to have stood up to them.’

Graham Linehan has every right to be proud, given what he’s been put through by the cry-bullies. Let’s hope his courage is contagious.

Georgina Mumford is an editorial assistant at spiked.