Graham Linehan, the co-creator of the TV sitcom Father Ted, told police he knocked a phone out of the hand of a teenage transgender activist after being taunted about his divorce, a court has heard.
The move was said by Linehan to have been a “reflex response” to a “provocative statement” from Sophia Brooks, then 17, who was filming him at the time.
Linehan, 57, is on trial at Westminster magistrates court on one count of harassing Brooks on social media between 11 and 27 October last year and a further charge of criminal damage to a mobile phone on 19 October. He denies the charges.
The court was told Linehan and Brooks had met for the first time in person outside the Battle of Ideas conference in Westminster on 19 October last year.
A prepared statement from Linehan, given during a police interview on 5 February with the acting DS Thomas Wells, was read to the court by the prosecution.
The statement, in which Linehan referred to Brooks as Tarquin, read: “I was first approached by Tarquin when I arrived at the venue and I was subject to a form of harassment with Tarquin approaching me and filming me at close quarters.
“This typically involved placing a phone immediately in front of someone’s face only a few inches away and filming them while trying to provoke a reaction. People often try to block the phone and Tarquin treats that as a game.
“He had no respect at all for people’s privacy or personal space. I had to try to ignore Tarquin as much as possible but was then confronted by Tarquin again at the end of the conference. Tarquin made a provocative statement about my current family position. I am now divorced and this is a very sensitive subject for me as he well knows.”
Linehan added: “The taunting from Tarquin was completely unnecessary. In response I grabbed the phone and threw it to one side. I had had enough of the constant harassment from Tarquin and needed to stop him from taunting me any further. I did not intend to cause any damage and I do not know if it was damaged or not, it was a reflex response to provocative actions by Tarquin.
“I accept I have referred to Tarquin in posts, but as a journalist I believe exposing the tactics of vindictive and aggressive trans activists is in the public interest.”
Linehan said in the statement he “simply wished the harassment from Tarquin to stop”.
Asked how the Tarquin name came to be used, Brooks had told the court on the first day of the trial: “It is apparently to do with my poshness.”
The court had heard from the prosecution that Linehan had “relentlessly” posted abusive and vindictive material on social media about Brooks, now 18.
Wells told the court that Linehan had no previous convictions or cautions.
Linehan was arrested over separate matters when he landed at Heathrow airport on Monday on suspicion of inciting violence over three social media posts about transgender people. He was flying from Arizona to the UK to attend the Westminster magistrates court trial.
The case continues.
