A transgender activist “took pictures of people’s faces” at a conference before a confrontation with Father Ted creator Graham Linehan, a court has been told.
The 57-year-old Irish comedy writer is on trial at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court, accused of harassing trans woman Sophia Brooks and damaging her mobile phone outside the Battle of Ideas conference in Westminster on October 19th last year.
District Judge Briony Clarke said the prosecution would address the complainant according to their “affirmed gender name”, while stating that the defendant’s position was that the “complainant is male”.
Giving evidence for the defence on Wednesday, Katherine Harris, co-founder of LGB Alliance UK, told the court she saw Ms Brooks stand up with a camera among attendees during a panel discussion.
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Referring to the complainant as male, Ms Harris said: “It was a deliberate, intimidatory move on his part and he would not stop. He was photographing anybody and everybody he could, and it felt intrusive and aggressive.
“It felt as though he wanted to get everybody, to get all of us in his power through his camera, to say, ‘I’m the big man here, I can do what I want’. That was the message. The disruption was complete.”
Ms Harris also told the court she knew Mr Linehan “very well”.
Prosecutor Julia Faure Walker put to Ms Harris that “whatever Brooks did, it didn’t have a significant effect on the conference in terms of disruption”, and Ms Harris replied “yes, I think it did”, adding: “The reason is these attacks are cumulative, they build and they build and they build.”
The court was told last month that Linehan and the activist met for the first time in person outside the Battle of Ideas conference in Westminster on October 19th last year.
While filming outside the venue, the activist approached Mr Linehan and asked: “Why do you think it is acceptable to call teenagers domestic terrorists?”
The transgender activist told the court that Mr Linehan had called them a “sissy porn-watching scumbag”, a “groomer” and a “disgusting incel”, with the complainant responding, “you’re the incel, you’re divorced”.
A video played to the court appeared to show Linehan grabbing the complainant’s phone.
Asked why he threw the phone and did not return it, Linehan said: “My adrenaline was up, I was angry. I guess that feels like surrender, so I threw it away.
“I didn’t slam it, I just skimmed it. It was instinctive, as soon as I did it, I thought that was a mistake.”
Giving evidence last month, Mr Linehan said his “life was made hell” by trans activists, adding that the complainant was a “young soldier in the trans activist army”.
The writer added: “He was misogynistic, he was abusive, he was snide.
“He depended on his anonymity to get close to people and hurt them, and I wanted to destroy that anonymity.”
Ms Faure Walker said Mr Linehan had posted about the activist “relentlessly” and that his posts were “oppressive”.
The court previously heard that Mr Linehan had posted on social media about someone with the name “Tarquin”, which Ms Faure Walker said was the defendant’s “derogatory term” for the complainant.
Mr Linehan, who appeared via video link on Wednesday, has denied one count of harassing the activist on social media between October 11th and October 27th last year, and a further charge of criminal damage of their mobile phone on October 19th last year.
The trial continues. – PA
