Russell T Davies says he keeps knife by his door after online ‘groomer’ claims
Russell T Davies (Getty Images)
Russell T Davies says he now keeps a knife next to his front door, “ready to use”, after his address was worked out online and a man turned up at his home.
Speaking in a Guardian interview, the 63-year-old screenwriter said: “People have worked out my address, and one person turned up at my house.”
Davies linked the incident to years of online harassment and misinformation about him. He said he has long been targeted with death threats and online campaigns branding him a “groomer” and “paedophile”, because of his vocal support of trans rights, specifically naming Graham Linehan. “People believe what they read,” he said.
He added: “If you believe a paedophile lives here, it’s not the maddest thing in the world to come and get me.”
‘I’ve been saying for years that our rights are paper-thin’
Davies condemned the lack of privacy that led to the unknown man arriving at his house, and said the incident came after misinformation spread online.
“I’ve been saying for years that our rights are paper-thin, and here we are,” he said.
He also warned about the role of major platforms in amplifying abuse, adding: “What scares me is that I can’t see an end to it. Nothing is going to unseat these tech barons, it will require some sort of revolution to stop them. So for the first time in history, hatred is being monetised by an algorithm.”
Graham Linehan responds
Controversial Father Ted creator Graham Linehan responded to Russell T Davies’ interview on X, saying his claim that Linehan called him “a paedophile and a groomer” is “a lie”.
He went on: “I did call him a groomer, because he used Doctor Who to push gender ideology, in which no child would believe unless an adult had planted it in his or her head.”
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