Graham Linehan found guilty of damaging transgender activist’s phone but cleared of harassment
Comedy writer Graham Linehan has been found guilty of damaging a phone belonging to a transgender activist, but cleared of the more serious charge of harassment.
The verdict was ruled at Westminster Magistrates Court in London on November 25th, following a trial in September where Linehan was accused of harassing then 18-year-old Sophia Brooks and damaging her mobile phone during an incident in October 2024. He denied both the charges.
The Father Ted creator was found guilty of “deliberately whack[ing]” the activist’s phone out of her hand and throwing it on to a road outside a conference, BBC News said the trial was told.
Linehan was also accused of “relentlessly” posting comments about Brooks on his social media feeds, but the verdict ruled that this did not amount to harassment, although he did inflict criminal damage in relation to the phone.
According to his defence, Linehan told the court during the trial that he believed his posts about Brooks and other transgender activists were made in the public interest, and that his action of knocking the woman’s phone from her hand was a “reflex response”.
The writer has become a controversial figure in the entertainment landscape for his vocal opposition to transgender people and the campaign to increase their rights, leading to a number of his former co-stars and work associates attempting to distance themselves from his views.
Linehan has claimed that both activists and journalists have “made hell” of his life over his views on transgender people and the social media posts he has made about them.
He was previously arrested when arriving on a flight from America to Heathrow Airport in September, over posts he made to his X account in April this year, which allegedly incited violence against transgender people.
Linehan was later bailed “pending further investigation”, the Metropolitan Police said at the time. The investigation was ultimately dropped in October.
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