Comedy writer Graham Linehan told police that he grabbed a transgender activist’s phone in a “reflex response” to “taunting” about his family life, a court heard on Friday.
The 57-year-old Irishman, the co-creator of Father Ted and the IT Crowd, is on trial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court accused of harassing trans woman Sophia Brooks.
The court was told that Linehan and the activist met for the first time in person outside the Battle of Ideas conference in Westminster on 19 October last year.
While filming outside the venue, the activist approached Linehan and asked: “Why do you think it is acceptable to call teenagers domestic terrorists?”
The transgender activist told the court that Linehan had called them a “sissy porn-watching scumbag”, a “groomer” and a “disgusting incel”, with the complainant responding “you’re the incel, you’re divorced”.
A video played to the court appeared to show Linehan grabbing the complainant’s phone.
The court previously heard that Linehan had posted on social media about someone with the name “Tarquin”, which prosecutor Julia Faure Walker said was the defendant’s “derogatory term” for the complainant.
A prepared statement from Linehan given during his police interview on 5 February was read to the court by Ms Faure Walker, in which he said: “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. 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 added in the statement that he “simply wished the harassment from Tarquin to stop”.
Prosecutor Ms Faure Walker said Linehan had posted on social media about the activist “relentlessly”, and that his posts were “oppressive”.
The prosecutor added on Thursday: “They were verbally abusive and vindictive, and reflected Mr Linehan’s deep disliking of Ms Brooks.”
Linehan has denied one count of harassing the activist on social media between 11 October and 27 October last year, and a further charge of criminal damage of their mobile phone on 19 October last year.
Linehan’s lawyer, Sarah Vine KC, made submissions that there was no case to answer in respect of both charges after the prosecution case finished, but this was rejected by the judge.
The trial continues.