Father Ted creator Graham Linehan has been cleared of harassment against a trans activist but guilty of criminal damage to their phone.
The 57-year-old comedy writer, who had faced trial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, denied both charges linked to a confrontation at a conference in London in October 2024.
Summarising her judgment, District Judge Briony Clarke said she found Linehan was a “generally credible witness” and appeared to be “genuinely frank and honest”, and was not satisfied his conduct amounted to harassment.
The judge said she did not accept complainant Sophia Brooks’s evidence “entirely” and did not find they were “as alarmed or distressed” as they had portrayed themself to be following tweets posted by the comedy writer.
However, she did find him guilty of criminal damage, for throwing Brooks’s phone.
“The footage (of the incident) shows that just before phone is taken the defendant is angry and I found that he took the phone because he was angry and fed up.
“I am therefore satisfied he was not using reasonable force and therefore find him guilty of criminal damage.”
Linehan flew to the UK from Arizona, where he now lives, to appear in court in person. He had denied harassing Brooks on social media between 11 and 27 October last year, as well as a charge of criminal damage of their mobile phone on 19 October outside the Battle of Ideas conference in Westminster.
The trial heard Brooks had begun taking photographs of delegates at the event during a speech by Fiona McAnena, director of campaigns at Sex Matters.
Giving evidence during the case, Linehan claimed his “life was made hell” by trans activists and accused Brooks, a trans woman, of being a “young soldier in the trans activist army”.
He told the court he was “angry” and “threw the phone” after being filmed outside the venue by the complainant, who had asked: “Why do you think it is acceptable to call teenagers domestic terrorists?”
Brooks told the court Linehan had called them a “sissy porn-watching scumbag”, a “groomer” and a “disgusting incel”, to which the complainant had responded: “You’re the incel, you’re divorced.”
The prosecution claimed Linehan’s social media posts were “repeated, abusive, unreasonable” while his lawyer accused the complainant of following “a course of conduct designed both to provoke and to harass Mr Linehan”.
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