Father Ted co-creator Graham Linehan has been cleared of harassing a teenage trans activist on social media, but convicted of damaging the activist’s phone.
Linehan “deliberately hit” Sophia Brooks’ phone and threw it onto the street outside a conference last October, his trial was told.
Westminster Magistrates’ Court also heard the Irish comedy writer “relentlessly” posted abusive comments on social media.
On Tuesday, the judge said Linehan’s social media posts did not constitute harassment, but found him guilty of criminal damage in relation to the phone. He denied both charges.
Linehan was accused of harassment after calling Brooks a “sociopath,” a “psychopath,” a “domestic terrorist” and a “hairdresser” on X.
District Judge Briony Clarke said that while the posts were “unattractive, annoying and irritating”, as well as “deeply unpleasant and even unnecessary”, they were not “oppressive or unacceptable” and therefore did not meet the criminal standard of harassment.
The couple met in person in October 2024 when Brooks, who was born biologically male but identifies as female, confronted Linehan and filmed him outside the Battle of Ideas conference in London.
The judge found that Linehan “picked up the phone and threw it because he was angry and fed up, not because he was using reasonable force to prevent the crime,” and that he damaged it in the process.
The judge said she did not believe “the complainant was as ‘alarmed and distressed’ as these messages and this course of conduct showed him to be.”
It also ruled that “the plaintiff did not give entirely truthful evidence” during the September trial, while Linehan was “overall a credible witness.”
He has been fined £500 and ordered to pay costs of £650 and a statutory surcharge of £200.
During the trial, Linehan told the court that tapping the phone was a “reflex response” and that transgender activists had “made his life hell” because of their views on gender identity.
Speaking outside court on Tuesday, he said there was “a group of dangerous men who are determined to intimidate women and girls and misuse the courts and police to promote a misogynistic agenda”.
He added: “I am proud to have stood up to them and will continue to do so.”
Mr Justice Clarke added that “it is not for the court to choose sides” in the “continuing debate about the rights of people in relation to their sex and gender identity”.
He explained 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 refer to Brooks using “gender-neutral pronouns and as ‘the complainant'” in her ruling.
This case was unrelated to separate allegations that led to Linehan’s much-publicized arrest at Heathrow Airport in September.
He was met by armed officers and detained on suspicion of inciting violence in posts on
In October, the Metropolitan Police abandoned its investigation after the Crown Prosecution Service decided no further action should be taken.
