A transgender activist feared she would fall victim to “vigilante violence” after being the subject of a string of “vindictive” online posts by comedian Graham Linehan, a court has heard.
Sophia Brooks, 18, said she was worried she could be “stabbed” or “beaten up” after Linehan called her a “domestic terrorist” and “sociopath” on X.
The 57-year-old Father Ted creator is on trial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court. He denies a charge of harassing trans woman Ms Brooks on social media between 11-27 October 2024 and also denied a charge of criminal damage of her mobile phone, to the value of £369, on 19 October 2024.
Prosecuting, Julia Faure Walker told the court on Thursday Ms Brooks came to Linehan’s attention after he “linked” her to a protest at a LGB Alliance conference on October 11. She said there was “no evidence” Ms Brooks was involved in an incident where some girls released insects inside the building.
Linehan then posted online a number of times about the complainant after the conference, the court heard.
In a post to the Metropolitan Police X account on October 12, her wrote: “I believe these three men all had knowledge of the recent homophobic attack on a meeting of gay, lesbian and bisexual people.
“Will they take seriously this example of domestic terrorism, in which I believe some silly children were doing the bidding of some very dangerous men.”
On October 13, Linehan posted online that the activist was “behind countless episodes of harassment of women and gay men both online and off”, adding “he is a deeply disturbed sociopath and I believe he had some involvement in Friday’s homophobic attack”.
Giving evidence, Ms Brooks said she was left feeling “worried for her safety” after Linehan posted a picture of her to his half a million followers.
Ms Brooks and Linehan later met outside the Battle of Ideas conference in Westminster on 19 October. Video footage played to the court appeared to show Linehan grabbing Ms Brooks’ phone after she asked him: “Do you think it is acceptable to call teenagers domestic terrorists?”.
In a separate video shown to the court, he appeared to call her a “sissy porn watching scumbag,” and in a third, Ms Brooks appeared to pose with Linehan as he appeared to call her a “disgusting incel”. In the video, Ms Brooks could be seen to reply: “You’re the incel, you’re divorced”.
When asked by Sarah Vine KC, defending, what she feared from the posts, Ms Brooks said: “Possibly someone acting as a vigilante and stabbing me on the street or beating me up”.
She then replayed the video of Ms Brooks posing with Linehan to the court and suggested she seemed “pleased with herself” when telling Linehan he was an incel. Ms Brooks replied: “Yes”.
When asked if she had been “quite enjoying” it, rather than being “alarmed or distressed,” Ms Brooks insisted she had been alarmed by the posts.
Ms Vine quizzed Ms Brooks over a number of X accounts she used. In one post, the court heard Ms Brooks had tweeted in response to a picture of gender critical activist Posie Parker having soup thrown over her. In the post, she responded to a reply expressing relief it was not acid, writing: “I really wish it was though”.
Ms Vine asked Ms Brooks if this was a “like for like” situation compared with Linehan’s posts referencing her. Ms Brooks denied this, saying her account had around 30 followers, compared to Linehan’s 500,000.
She called it a “single offhand comment” compared to “a month of abuse”.
The court was also shown video footage of a video Ms Brooks appeared in during which she addressed “Terfs” (trans exclusionary radical feminists). In the video, she could be heard to say: “We know who you are and we are cataloging everything that you do. You will pay, I never lose…good luck”.
Ms Brooks said it was a “joke” in reference to a phrase used by Ms Parker, whose real name is Kellie-Jay Nyishie Keen-Minshull. “KJK always says ‘I never lose,” she said. “So I thought I would add, you will pay, I never lose. It was a joke.”
She added it “was not a threat”.
Judge Briony Clarke was forced to issue a warning to the public gallery after audible laughter on several occasions. The trial continues.
