Who is Graham Linehan and why is he in court again?
Father Ted and IT Crowd writer in Southwark Crown Court to appeal his conviction for criminal damage
Graham Linehan was “proud” to have damaged a trans activist’s mobile phone during a dispute outside a conference, a court has been told.
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The TV writer and anti-trans activist is appealing his conviction for criminal damage at Southwark Crown Court this week, after he snatched the phone of Sophia Brooks and threw it to the ground in October 2024.
He had previously been cleared of harassing the transgender activist Ms Brooks, when a judge ruled that the complainant was not as alarmed or distressed as she claimed to be.
The Irish comedy writer, who helped to create shows including Father Ted and Black Books, flew in from Arizona to attend the first of two days on Thursday, to get his conviction overturned.
Prosecutor Julia Faure Walker, opening the case before Mrs Justice Amanda Tipples, told the court Linehan gained “a sense of personal superiority” from the incident, which he then tweeted about.
“Clearly, Mr Linehan was pleased by gaining a sense of personal superiority over a transgender activist,” Ms Faure Walker said.
The hearing on Thursday showed footage filmed by Ms Brooks, who was then 17, in which she approached Linehan and asked: “Why do you think it is acceptable to call teenagers domestic terrorists?”
On the footage, Linehan can be heard calling Ms Brooks a “porn-watching scumbag,” a “groomer” and a “disgusting incel”, with the complainant responding: “You’re the incel, you’re divorced.”
During his initial criminal damage hearing, he argued that he slapped the phone away to stop it being "shoved in his face".
The hearing is set to continue on Friday, but who is Linehan and how did we get here?
Who is Graham Linehan?
Graham Linehan, 57, is an Irish comedy writer known for creating or co-creating the sitcoms Father Ted, Black Books, The IT Crowd, and Count Arthur Strong, as well as writing for The Fast Show, The Day Today, and Brass Eye.
Born in Dublin, he had lived in Norwich with his now ex-wife Helen Serafinowicz, another TV comedy writer, and their two children. The couple divorced in 2020 and Linehan now lives in the US.
While he has previously campaigned over issues such as abortion and atheism, Linehan has been heavily in the news for his anti-transgender activism in recent years.
His tweeting about trans rights intensified into the late 2010s and, in 2018, he said in interviews that he opposed the notion that a trans woman was a woman.
In a 2018 interview he has been quoted as saying: "I'm now in a position where I can answer the question honestly of 'if you were around at the time of something terrible happening like Nazism, or whatever it happened to be, would you be one of the people who said "no, this is wrong", despite being opposed?'"
Having lost work as a result of his outspoken beliefs, he also claims to have faced pressure to have his name taken off the credits of Father Ted episodes as he tried to get a musical of the show off the ground.
A Linehan-written episode of IT Crowd, broadcast on 2008, was removed by Channel 4 from syndication in 2020.
The episode, called The Speech, showed a man having a fist fight with his transgender girlfriend. It was also taken off the on-demand All Four.
"After reviewing this particular episode in light of current audience expectations, we concluded it did not meet our standards for remaining available on All 4 and it was not possible to make adequate changes," a Channel 4 statement read.
Having separated from his wife, he also has described the backlash to his views as having left him isolated and suicidal at the turn of the decade. He has also faced bans from Twitter and been reinstated more than once.
However, Linehan doubled down with the publication of his memoir Tough Crowd in 2023 and has continued tweeting as well as making public appearances in support of anti-trans causes.
In September 2025, he said he had been arrested due to the anti-trans nature of three tweets and held at Heathrow Airport. The first tweet read: “If a trans-identified male is in a female-only space, he is committing a violent, abusive act. Make a scene, call the cops and if all else fails, punch him in the b****.”
Another was a picture of a trans rally with the caption: “A photo you can smell.”
The third was a follow up to this tweet which said: “I hate them. Misogynists and homophobes. F*** em.”
He was released and Sir Keir Starmer later said that police should not be focusing on tweets.
Additional reporting by PA.