Father Ted creator Linehan wanted to ‘destroy’ anonymity of trans activist

Father Ted creator Graham Linehan said he wanted to “destroy” the anonymity of an “abusive” trans activist, a court has heard.

The 57-year-old Irish comedy writer is on trial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court accused of harassing trans woman Sophia Brooks.

District Judge Briony Clarke said the prosecution would address the complainant according to their “affirmed gender name”, while stating that the defendant’s position was that the “complainant is male”.

Giving evidence on Friday, Linehan said his “life was made hell” by trans activists, adding that the complainant was a “young soldier in the trans activist army”.

The writer added: “He was misogynistic, he was abusive, he was snide.

“He depended on his anonymity to get close to people and hurt them, and I wanted to destroy that anonymity.”

Asked about the impact on his personal life since his involvement in gender critical activism, Linehan replied: “I lost my marriage. When I refused to stop talking about it, that’s when they went after my wife.

“They scared her to such an extent, and the police visit scared her to such an extent – I was losing all my income, finally the pressure drove us apart.”

Linehan said his Wikipedia page has been “basically defaced”.

The writer said he had lived in Arizona, USA, for the last six months, having previously lived in Surrey Quays, London, and Norwich.

Prosecutor Julia Faure Walker said Linehan had posted about the activist “relentlessly”, and that his posts were “oppressive”.

Asked if he had any intention to incite any violent action, Linehan said: “No, because the violence and toxicity in the trans debate comes entirely from the trans side.

“I intended to make sure that the next time he came to any similar event, people would know to expect trouble and people would be on their guard.”

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.”

Linehan’s lawyer, Sarah Vine KC, asked the IT Crowd creator: “You are best known as a writer, a comedy writer principally. When did you first register the issues of conflict between sex and gender identity?”

The writer said: “I think I just started noticing that trans activists were doing things like stopping meetings from happening, harassing women who were present at meetings.

“I hate bullies and the bullies who bully women are the worst of all, so it got me very angry.

“Many of the women fighting couldn’t risk fighting in an overt way, but I thought I had a moral duty to do it because no-one else was reporting on it.”

Linehan denied he had “become a bit obsessed with Ms Brooks” when it was put to him by Ms Faure Walker during cross examination.

Discussing the activist, Linehan said: “Brooks lies about their name, about their sex. I don’t believe anything he says. He is a born liar.”

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, the activist 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”, 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.

“I didn’t slam it, I just skimmed it. It was instinctive, as soon as I did it I thought that was a mistake.”

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.

A prepared statement from Linehan given during his police interview on February 5 was read to the court by Ms Faure Walker, in which he said: “I was first approached by Tarquin when I arrived at the venue and I was subject to a form of harassment with Tarquin approaching me and filming me at close quarters.

“This typically involved placing a phone immediately in front of someone’s face only a few inches away and filming them while trying to provoke a reaction. People often try to block the phone and Tarquin treats that as a game.

“He had no respect at all for people’s privacy or personal space. I had to try to ignore Tarquin as much as possible but was then confronted by Tarquin again at the end of the conference.

“Tarquin made a provocative statement about my current family position. I am now divorced and this is a very sensitive subject for me as he well knows.

“The taunting from Tarquin was completely unnecessary. In response I grabbed the phone and threw it to one side.

“I did not intend to cause any damage and I do not know if it was damaged or not, it was a reflex response to provocative actions by Tarquin.”

Linehan has denied one count of harassing the activist on social media between October 11 and October 27 last year, and a further charge of criminal damage of their mobile phone on October 19 last year.

Ms Vine made submissions on Friday that there was no case to answer in respect of both charges after the prosecution case finished, but this was rejected by the judge.

The trial was adjourned and will resume on October 29 with Linehan released on bail.