Father Ted creator 'ripped phone from activist's hand'

FATHER Ted creator Graham Linehan “deliberately whacked” a phone out of a transgender activist’s hand and called them a “disgusting incel’ a court has heard.

- JORDAN REYNOLDS & SAM HALL

The 57-year-old Irish comedy writer is on trial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court accused of harassing trans woman Sophia Brooks.

District Judge Briony Clarke said the prosecution would address the complainant according to their “affirmed gender name”, while stating that the defendant's position was that the “complainant is male’

The judge added: “No party seeks to police the other's use of language. Neither party wishes the use of language to disrupt proceedings”

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 October 19 last year.

The transgender activist told the court that Linehan had called her a “sissy porn-watching scumbag’ a “groomer” and a “disgusting incel’, with the complainant responding: “You're the incel. You're divorced’.

Filming outside the venue, the activist approached Linehan and asked: “Why do you think it is acceptable to call teenagers domestic terrorists?”