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Gender-critical activist Graham Linehan has admitted in court that he threw a phone belonging to trans teen Sophia Brooks during a confrontation between the two outside an event. Father Ted and IT Crowd creator Linehan, who is well-known for his outspoken views about trans rights, was arrested in April on criminal damage and harassment charges against 18-year-old Brooks. In May the 57-year-old pleaded not guilty, denying he harassed her and damaged her mobile phone, which was valued at £369, outside the Battle of Ideas conference in Westminster on 19 October 2024. In September, jurors in the case – which is taking place at Westminster Magistrates Court – heard Brooks confronted Linehan and asked him why he thinks 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 responded by telling Linehan: “You’re the incel, you’re divorced”. 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 argued Linehan had “relentlessly” posted about Brooks and his tweets were “oppressive and unacceptable” and had crossed “the threshold [for harassment].” The court was played a video of the incident, which showed Linehan grabbing Brooks phone. Linehan was asked by prosecutors why he did not simply return Brooks phone after grabbing it. “My adrenaline was up, I was angry. I guess that feels like surrender, so I threw it away,” he answered, 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’.” On Wednesday (29 October), co-founder of LGB Alliance Katherine Harris, journalist Julie Bindel and Fiona McAnena, director of campaigns at gender-critical organisation Sex Matters, all gave evidence for the defence. All three used he/him pronouns for Sophia Brooks in court. Harris recalled seeing Brooks stand up during a panel discussion at the Battle of Ideas event and described it as a “deliberate, intimidatory move” and “would not stop”, adding Brooks was “photographing anybody and everybody” which felt “intrusive and aggressive”. Harris said: “It felt as though [she] wanted to get everybody, to get all of us in his power through [her] camera, to say, ‘I’m the big man here, I can do what I want’. That was the message. The disruption was complete.” McAnena also described Brooks actions as a “massive distraction” to the event. However, Walker put it to her that Brooks behaviour “didn’t have a significant effect on the conference in terms of disruption”, to which Harris stated it did, adding: “The reason is these attacks are cumulative, they build and they build and they build.” Bindel told the court she felt “scared” of Brooks and described how outside the event Brooks was “walking very close” to Linehan. “It’s very menacing, that whole ‘getting in your face’ thing, and it was a public event, it’s not that it was a private secret event where Brooks would need proof that we were there,” Bindel said. “Graham was trying to get [her] to stop pushing the camera in his face and I heard him say several times, use words like ‘stop’ or ‘go away’. “I saw something which I could describe as a sweeping motion, and then the phone was flying. “Brooks was in his face and he was trying repeatedly to get [her] out of his face and to stop.” The trial continues.
