Father Ted creator Graham Linehan called a 17-year old transgender activist a “disgusting incel” and a “groomer” before grabbing her phone and throwing it across a road last October, his trial in London heard on Thursday.
A video played at Westminster Magistrates’ Court also showed Mr Linehan (57), who is charged with harassing the activist Sophia Brooks, calling her a “sissy-porn watching scumbag” during the heated exchange.
Ms Brooks, meanwhile, denied in court that she had pressed police to pursue criminal charges against Mr Linehan solely to get “kudos” among fellow trans activists by gaining the “massive scalp” of Mr Linehan, a well-known gender critical campaigner.
Mr Linehan denies the charge of harassing Ms Brooks, now aged 18, in a slew of online posts last October. He also denies a charge of causing criminal damage to her phone.
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Trans activists and gender critical campaigners gathered outside the courthouse in Marylebone, west London, on Thursday morning in advance of the case, which is being held in front of a judge with no jury.
Mr Linehan arrived about an hour before the case was due to start. He briefly wore a sandwich board inscribed with gender-critical slogans outside the courthouse. Free speech campaigners who were supporting Mr Linehan also unveiled a banner.
Inside the courthouse, court staff moved the case from the allocated court number nine to the much larger court one, given the level of public and media interest in the case.
Mr Linehan had been the subject of intense media interest earlier in the week. He was arrested by armed officers at Heathrow Airport when he flew in for the case, over separate allegations related to his tweeting activity.
Mr Linehan, wearing a grey blazer and white shirt, initially took a seat on Thursday behind a glass wall in the dock of the court, where he was provided with an ear piece to allow him to hear proceedings. The batteries soon ran out, however, and the judge overseeing the case, deputy district judge Louise Balmain, invited him to sit in the well of the court.
“I’m sorry Mr Linehan, these technical problems should not happen,” she said. The technical difficulties continued when barristers later experienced difficulty playing video evidence to the court.
The case against Mr Linehan was opened by prosecution barrister Julia Faure Walker, who outlined what she said was a “relentless” and “verbally abusive and vindictive” campaign by Mr Linehan against Ms Brooks.
The court heard the trans activist had been outside an October 11th meeting in London of the gender critical group, the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Alliance. Inside, other trans activists had released insects in the room to disrupt the meeting, but Ms Brooks was not involved, the prosecution barrister said.
The prosecution said Mr Linehan associated Ms Brooks with the incident and harassed her in a series of messages online, calling her a “psychopath”.
The two came face to face for the first time at the Battle of Ideas conference on October 19th in Westminster, when Ms Brooks confronted Mr Linehan for what he had been saying online. She recorded their final encounter, in which Mr Linehan could be seen grabbing her phone.
Ms Brooks then took the stand, where she was cross-examined by Mr Linehan’s defence barrister, Sarah Vine, who questioned her about her history of trans activism.
She also queried whether Ms Brooks was really “alarmed and distressed” by what had happened with Mr Linehan.
“For a trans activist being able to make a complaint resulting in Graham Linehan getting convicted, that would be a massive scalp, would you accept that?” she asked Ms Brooks. “You weren’t remotely alarmed or distressed, were you?”
The case, which is scheduled for two days of evidence, continues on Friday.
