Father Ted co-creator Graham Linehan has been acquitted of harassing a teenage trans activist on social media but convicted of damaging the campaigner’s phone.
Linehan “intentionally broke” Sophia Brooks’ phone and threw it on the street outside a convention last October, according to her lawsuit.
Westminster Magistrates Court also heard that the Irish comedy writer “persistently” posted abusive comments on social media.
On Tuesday the judge ruled that Linehan’s social media posts did not amount to harassment, but found him guilty of criminal damage in relation to the phone. He denied both the allegations.
Linehan was accused of harassment after calling Brooks, who was 17 at the time, a “sociopath”, “psycho”, “domestic terrorist” and a “groomer” on X.
District Judge Briony Clarke said that although the posts were “unflattering, annoying and disturbing”, as well as “extremely unpleasant and unnecessary”, they were not “oppressive or unacceptable” and therefore did not meet the criminal standard for harassment.
The pair met in person in October 2024 when Brooks, who was born a biological male but identifies as a woman, encountered Linehan and filmed her outside the Battle of Ideas conference in London.
The judge found that Linehan “took the phone and threw it because he was angry and fed up, not because he was using reasonable force to stop a crime”, and he damaged it in the process.
The judge said he did not think “the complainant was as ‘concerned and distressed’ as he portrayed himself to be by these messages and this conduct”.
He also ruled that “the complainant was not giving entirely truthful evidence” during the trial in September, while Linehan was “generally a credible witness”.
He was fined £500 and ordered to pay costs of £650 and a statutory surcharge of £200.
During the trial, Linehan told the court that the phone knocking was a “reaction reaction”, and that transgender activists had made her life “hell” because of her views about gender identity.
Speaking outside the court on Tuesday, she said there was “a group of dangerous people who are determined to abuse the courts and the police to intimidate women and girls and push an anti-feminist agenda”.
“I’m proud to stand up to them and will continue to do so,” he said.
Judge Clark said the Court had no intention of “picking a side” on “the ongoing debate about the rights of individuals in relation to sex and gender identity”.
He pointed out that the prosecution used female pronouns to refer to the complainant during the trial, while Linehan’s defense used male pronouns. The judge said she had chosen to use “gender neutral pronouns and refer to Brooks as ‘the complainant'” in her decision.
The case was unrelated to the separate allegations that led to Linehan’s much-publicized arrest at Heathrow Airport in September.
Armed officers met him and held him on suspicion of inciting violence in the post on X, provoking a reaction from some public figures and politicians and provoking a sharp debate about policing and freedom of expression.
In October, the Metropolitan Police closed their investigation after the Crown Prosecution Service decided that no further action should be taken.
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