FATHER Ted creator Graham Linehan told cops he threw a trans activist’s phone into the road because of a taunt over his divorce, a court heard yesterday.
He had clashed with Sophia Brooks online before being confronted at a free speech festival in Westminster.
i-ImagesSophia Brooks, wearing a purple hoodie, arrives for the trial of Linehan[/caption]
The Irish comedy writer, 57, said the student, then 17, repeatedly approached while filming him on a mobile phone.
The court heard he called the activist an “incel” — a slang term meaning involuntarily celibate — and was told: “You’re the incel. You’re divorced.”
Dad-of-two Linehan told police who interviewed him divorce was a “very sensitive subject”, it was said, and blamed his on pressure put on him over his trans views.
In a prepared statement to cops, in which he referred to the activist as Tarquin for being posh, he said: “The taunting was completely unnecessary, as was the filming.
“In response I grabbed the phone and threw it to one side.
“I am sure that is precisely the kind of response he had wanted so he could complain about me.
“However, I had had enough of the continued harassment and needed to stop him taunting me any further.
“It was a reflex response to provocative actions from Tarquin.”
Linehan told Westminster magistrates’ court that his “gender critical” posts had sparked complaints to police.
He said: “When I refused to stop talking about it, that’s when they went after my wife.
“The police visits scared her to such an extent that the pressure drove us apart.”
Linehan, who now lives in Arizona, US, was controversially arrested by five armed cops at Heathrow on Monday over separate posts, unrelated to the trial.
In court, he also accused officers of being “ideologically captured” by the trans rights movement, adding: “Police in the UK have become a sort of errand boy for these men.”
He denies harassing Brooks, now 18, and criminal damage.
District Judge Briony Clarke adjourned the trial to October 29.
PALinehan told cops he threw a trans activist’s phone into the road because of a taunt over his divorce, a court heard[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
