Anti-trans lawyer calls for ‘the heads’ of trans charity Mermaids trustees in chilling tweet
Sarah Phillimore, the co-founder of ‘gender critical’ group Fair Cop, has called for “the heads of all the Mermaids trustees”. (Getty/Twitter)
Sarah Phillimore, the co-founder of ‘gender critical’ group Fair Cop, has called for “the heads of all the Mermaids trustees” in a tweet.
Parodying Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You”, lawyer Phillimore said she wanted “to find the heads” of the trans children’s charity trustees underneath her Christmas tree.
Her shocking comments follow the announcement that the UK’s Charity Commission had opened a ‘statutory inquiry’ into the organisation, which supports trans youth and their families.
Phillimore suggested her call was because of “all the children they’ve destroyed” and “all the money they’ve purloined”.
Fair Cop responded by asking its followers to donate to a Crowdfunder, and blamed Phillimore’s brief suspension from Twitter on “a parody Christmas song”.
One person on Twitter said they would report Phillimore, who is a practicing family lawyer, to the Bar Standards Board because the threat would be “a clear breach of their statutory standards”.
Phillimore defended her comments, saying her words were “not an incitement to murder anyone”, but “a satirical twist on famous song lyrics”.
“But if you disagree, don’t waste your time pearl clutching on social media, report it to the police.”
A statutory inquiry into Mermaids was formalised last week after a regulatory compliance case was originally opened in September.
It will investigate whether there has been “serious systemic failing in the charity’s governance and management” within the organisation.
The original case began after a number of articles in right-wing publications portrayed Mermaids as posing a danger to children.
Mermaids said it was aware of Phillimore’s tweet but did not want to comment.
On Friday (2 December), when the statutory inquiry was announced, the organisation published a statement saying it would “cooperate fully, openly and with complete transparency”.
Mermaids highlighted that it already commissioned its own independent external report earlier this year.
“We know we must do better and we are absolutely committed to doing so, and will be implementing the report’s recommendations as a priority.”
PinkNews has approached Sarah Phillimore for comment.
