Father Ted co-creator Graham Linehan has gone on trial accused of harassing a transgender activist.
The 57-year-old comedy writer, who is on trial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, denies one count of harassing Sophia Brooks on social media and a further charge of damaging her mobile phone.
At the start of the trial, prosecutor Julia Faure Walker told the court that Mr Linehan had posted about the activist “relentlessly” and that his posts were “oppressive”.
“They were verbally abusive and vindictive, and reflected Mr Linehan’s deep disliking of Ms Brooks,” she added.
The trial heard that on 11 October last year, a conference of the women’s rights group LGB Alliance was disrupted when some girls inside released insects.
Ms Faure Walker said: “Despite there being no evidence that Ms Brooks participated, Linehan linked disruption of the event to her.”
Linehan then posted online a number of times about Brooks, a trans woman, describing the actions as an “example of domestic terrorism”.
‘Deeply disturbed sociopath’
The court heard he misgendered her in a message, which said: “He is a deeply disturbed sociopath, and I believe he had some involvement in Friday’s homophobic attack.”
Giving evidence, Ms Brooks told the court she felt “alarmed and distressed”.
“I was being branded as a deeply disturbed sociopath by a relatively famous person with over 500,000 followers – any of which could see Mr Linehan’s post and cause great harm to me,” she told the court.
Mr Linehan met the activist for the first time in person outside the Battle of Ideas conference in Westminster on 19 October last year.
Video shown to the court appeared to show the pair engaged in a verbal altercation and Linehan grabbing Ms Brooks’ phone.
‘Disgusting incel’
The transgender activist said Mr Linehan had called her a “sissy porn-watching scumbag”, a “groomer”, and a “disgusting incel”, which prompted her to respond, “you’re the incel, you’re divorced”.
The court heard Mr Linehan subsequently posted a message on 19 October allegedly referring to Ms Brooks as an “absolute psycho”, and in another post on 24 October wrote “he’s also a scumbag who harasses women”, the prosecution said.
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Ms Faure Walker told the court Mr Linehan, who was interviewed under caution on 5 February, provided a prepared statement in which he said Ms Brooks “had harassed him, by approaching him and filming him at close quarters”.
Linehan was ‘provoked’
“The complainant provoked him and made a provocative statement; put the phone in his face; he grabbed the phone and threw it to the side; it was a reflex response,” she added about the prepared statement.
“In relation to the online posts, the defendant did not accept it amounted to harassment; as a journalist – as he described himself – he believed exposing tactics of trans activities was in the public interest,” Ms Faure Walker added.
The trial continues. The court has not yet heard a formal defence from Mr Linehan.
Before entering into Westminster Magistrates’ Court, he posed with a sign bearing the message: “There’s no such thing as a ‘transgender child'”.
On the other side, it read: “Keep men out of women’s sports”.
Mr Linehan has become a vocal critic of the trans rights movement in recent years.
After a court hearing in May, in which he pleaded not guilty to the charges, he said he had “lost a great deal” but “will not waver in my resolve”.
Mr Linehan, who created Father Ted in the 1990s with fellow Irish writer Arthur Mathews, was arrested at Heathrow Airport on Monday on suspicion of inciting violence in connection with posts on X about trans issues.
