Graham Linehan cleared of harassing trans teen but guilty of criminal damage

Graham Linehan has been found guilty of damaging a trans teenager’s phone during a confrontation but was also cleared of harassing her.

The 57-year-old Father Ted and IT Crowd creator, who is well-known for his contentious views about trans rights, was on trial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court after he was charged with criminal damage and harassment against 18-year-old activist Sophia Brooks, who was 17 at the time of the incident.

The charges were related to a confrontation outside the Battle of Ideas conference in London on 19 October 2024, where a phone belonging to Brooks – valued at £369 – was thrown and damaged.

During the trial, the court heard that Brooks had approached Linehan outside the venue and questioned why he believes it is “acceptable to call teenagers domestic terrorists” and in response he called her a “groomer,” “disgusting incel”, and a “sissy-porn watching scumbag”.

Brooks said she replied by telling the comedy writer: “You’re the incel, you’re divorced”.

The court was played a video of the incident, which showed Linehan grabbing Brooks’ phone.

When asked why he did not simply return it to her, he explained: “My adrenaline was up, I was angry. I guess that feels like surrender, so I threw it away,” he said, as quoted by The Independent.

“I didn’t slam it, I just skimmed it. It was instinctive, as soon as I did it, I thought ‘that was a mistake’.”

Julia Faure Walker, prosecuting, told the court: “Linehan was clearly proud of what he had done because a few days [later] he tweeted: ‘I am quite proud. I grabbed his phone and threw it across the road.’

“Clearly, he was pleased from gaining a sense of superiority over someone on the other side of the ideological debate.”

Walker also told the court Linehan had shared several posts on social media about Brooks, which she described as “oppressive and unacceptable” and said they crossed “the threshold [for harassment].”

However, Linehan’s legal team said Brooks’ behaviour – which included taking photographs and filming delegates at the conference – was “a course of conduct designed both to provoke and to harass Mr Linehan”.

Linehan told the court during the trial that he life had allegedly been “made hell” by trans people and described Brooks as a “young soldier in the trans activist army”.

Misgendering Brooks throughout the trial, Linehan described her as “misogynistic”, “abusive” and “snide”, and said she “depended on [her] anonymity to get close to people and hurt them, and I wanted to destroy that anonymity”.

Linehan now lives in Arizona, US and had flown to the UK from the state to hear the judgement handed down in person.

District judge Briony Clarke said – as quoted by Sky News – that footage of the incident shows “just before phone is taken the defendant is angry and I found that he took the phone because he was angry and fed up”.

“I am therefore satisfied he was not using reasonable force and therefore find him guilty of criminal damage,” Clarke concluded.

However, she found Linehan not guilty of harassing the trans teen as she did not accept Brook’s evidence “entirely” nor believed she was “as alarmed or distressed” as she said she was about social media posts made by Linehan.

Linehan has been ordered to pay a fine of £500, court costs of £650 and a statutory surcharge of £200