Father Ted co-creator Graham Linehan, who was found guilty of damaging the mobile phone of a transgender activist during a dispute outside a conference, has had his conviction overturned.
Linehan, a prominent anti-transgender activist, was involved in a confrontation with Sophia Brooks outside the Battle Of Ideas conference in Westminster on October 19 2024.
The 57-year-old, who attended the two-day hearing at Southwark Crown Court in person, smiled and turned to supporters sitting in the public gallery when Mrs Justice Amanda Tipples ruled on Friday his conviction for criminal damage should be overturned.
The judge, who was assisted in the proceedings by two magistrates, said: “Having considered all the evidence before us, we cannot be sure that the damage to the complainant’s phone was caused by Mr Linehan on the evening of the 19th of October 2024.
“We therefore find Mr Linehan not guilty of the offence.”
The hearing on Thursday was shown footage filmed on Ms Brooks’ phone in the moments leading up to the criminal damage incident.
While filming outside the venue, the activist, who was then aged 17, approached Linehan and asked: “Why do you think it is acceptable to call teenagers domestic terrorists?”
On the footage, Linehan can be heard calling Ms Brooks a “sissy porn-watching scumbag,” a “groomer” and a “disgusting incel”, with the complainant responding: “You’re the incel, you’re divorced.”
Another video played in court on Thursday appeared to show Linehan grabbing or slapping the complainant’s phone out of her hands.
Linehan’s lawyer Sarah Vine KC told the judge the complainant was “determined” to see Linehan convicted as part of a “campaign” against the comedy writer for his anti-transgender activism.
The complainant, Ms Vine said, “is seeking to achieve a victory against Mr Linehan because he is a high-profile opponent, by misusing the justice system”.
Last November, District Judge Briony Clarke also cleared Linehan of harassing Ms Brooks with a series of social media posts before and after the incident.
She said his posts were “deeply unpleasant, insulting and even unnecessary”, but did not amount to “oppressive” conduct.
The Bafta-winning writer was accused of harassment for branding Ms Brooks a “domestic terrorist”, a “groomer” and an “incel” in social media posts.
