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A trans activist who Father Ted creator Graham Linehan is accused of harassing used her camera as a “weapon” to disrupt a conference, the TV writer’s friend told a court. Linehan, 57, is on trial accused of aiming a string of slurs at Sophia Brooks online, as well as in-person after she disrupted a ‘Battle of Ideas’ conference held by the LGB Alliance last October. The comedy writer is also accused of criminal damage by snatching Ms Brooks’ phone and throwing it to the ground during a confrontation outside the conference centre in Westminster. Kate Harris, a trustee of the LGB Alliance, told Westminster Magistrates’ Court her “heart sank” when she spotted Ms Brooks and another trans activist, Freda Wallace, in the audience at the conference on October 19 last year. “My heart sank because there would be disruption”, she said, and insisted that if Ms Brooks had asked to debate their differing ideas then she would have willingly had a conversation. “Freedom of speech is at the heart of the LGB Alliance. That is one of the main reasons we founded it, because we believe that if you don’t have a dialogue you can’t make progress”, she said. “Those people have shown themselves to be incapable of dialogue. That’s why my heart sank.” At the start of Wednesday’s court hearing, District Judge Briony Clarke told the media and watching public that both sides in the trial have agreed a “use of language” protocol, in which it is agreed that Linehan and his witnesses would refer to Ms Brooks as ‘he’. Describing the conference interruption, Ms Harris said: “I saw this big bloke getting up with a big camera. “He began to photograph in a way I can only describe as intimidating. My reaction was this isn’t someone interested in the conference. He was taking photos in people’s faces.” She called Ms Brooks’ actions “chilling” and “intrusive and aggressive”, telling the court: “It felt he wanted to get everybody, all of us, in his power, on camera, to intimidate, to silence, to say ‘I’m the big man here, I can do what I want’.” She said Ms Brooks’ actions “felt tinged with violence” and was a “deliberate provocation”. Video of the incident shows Ms Harris holding up her conference programme in a bid to stop Ms Brooks taking pictures, before a security volunteer intervened to ask her to leave. “I couldn’t say ‘stop what you are doing, leave, go’. It’s a bit pathetic looking back, but it was all I could do at the time”, she told the court. Earlier in her evidence, Ms Harris described an incident at an LGB Alliance event a week before the ‘Battle of Ideas’ event, when trans activists had released thousands of live crickets into the audience. “I heard screaming”, she said. “I came out into the auditorium and I saw people running towards the exits. “I subsequently heard that thousands of live crickets had been released into the auditorium, all over the place, down people’s necks, heads, bags, clothing, everywhere.” Ms Harris told the court she believes the disruption by Ms Brooks at the Battle of Ideas conference was part of an “organised campaign of intimidation”. Linehan, a prominent anti-trans activist, is accused of harassing by calling Ms Brooks a “domestic terrorist” and an “incel” in a series of confrontations at the event, which took place on October 19 last year. He is alleged to have started the harassment on social media, and continued after the incident at the conference. Linehan denies the charge, and has also pleaded not guilty to criminal damage of the mobile phone. Prosecutor Julia Faure Walker told the court at the start of the trial in September that Ms Brooks says Linehan had “mocked her gender identity”, accused of her of involvement in “domestic terrorism”, and suggested she was one of a group of “very dangerous men”. Linehan is seen in videos at the event calling Ms Brooks a “groomer” and an “incel” when she shouted questions at him while filming on her mobile phone. The TV writer had been told by police that no criminal charges would be brought over the incident, but Ms Brooks told the court that she threatened to bring a Judicial Review against the force over the decision, prompting a change of heart. In his evidence, Linehan said his “life was made hell” by trans activists, and branded Ms Brooks “misogynistic, abusive, and snide”. “He depended on his anonymity to get close to people and hurt them, and I wanted to destroy that anonymity”, he said. Linehan, who helped to create TV comedies like Father Ted and Black Books, said his gender critical activism destroyed his marriage and derailed his career in the entertainment industry. The writer, who now lives in Arizona, USA, said he engaged with Ms Brooks at the conference “to make sure that the next time he came to any similar event, people would know to expect trouble and people would be on their guard.” He called Ms Brooks a “born liar”, and disputes the claim that he caused £369 worth of damage to her mobile phone. He says he grabbed the phone as a “reflex”, and in the face of extreme provocation. Journalist and feminist activist Julie Bindel gave evidence for the defence case, saying she found Ms Brooks “menacing” when she had encountered the activist. “I had the feeling Brooks wanted to scare me and he was calling my name, and he was there to be menacing”, she said. Ms Bindel said she was “scared” of Ms Brooks at the Battle of Ideas event, when the activist had disrupted a speech and was then shouting and filming delegates as they left the conference centre. “I felt scared of him”, she said. “To the point where my Uber had given me a two-minute time for arrival and then cancelled, I was waiting for another one to confirm, and I felt quite shaken.” Ms Bindel told the court she witnessed Linehan snatch Ms Brooks’ phone, and told the court the TV writer had been “his usual jovial self” prior to the incident. “Very quickly he appeared like a man who had had enough, and he just wanted them to go away”, she said. Linehan is appearing via videolink from the US, and said on Tuesday that travel difficulties had prevented him from attending court in person. Judge Clarke has indicated that she will not deliver a verdict today. The trial continues.
