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The co-creator of the U.Okay. sitcom “Father Ted” was arrested at London Heathrow Airport on Monday allegedly over a number of social media posts criticizing transgender activists.
Graham Linehan recounted the ordeal on his Substack, saying there have been indicators of one thing unusual taking place earlier than he landed in London.
In accordance with the previous comedy author, a gate agent within the U.S. mentioned he didn’t have a seat on his flight again house and wanted to be issued a brand new ticket – one thing he didn’t suppose a lot of on the time. Nonetheless, because the arrest, Linehan wrote on Substack that he believes he was flagged as a result of “somebody, someplace, in all probability carrying unconvincing make-up” made a name.
“Father Ted” co-creator Graham Linehan speaks to the media outdoors Westminster Magistrates’ Court docket, London, the place he has pleaded not responsible to harassing a transgender lady and damaging a telephone on Could 12, 2025. (Lucy North/PA Photographs by way of Getty Photographs)
When he bought off the airplane at Heathrow, Linehan was met by 5 armed officers, who informed him he was being arrested over three posts on X.
“In a rustic the place pedophiles escape sentencing, the place knife crime is uncontrolled, the place girls are assaulted and harassed each time they collect to talk, the state had mobilized 5 armed officers to arrest a comedy author for this tweet (and no, I promise you, I’m not making this up),” Linehan wrote.
In one of many posts, Linehan wrote that “if a trans-identified male is in a female-only area, he’s committing a violent, abusive act.” He then mentioned these encountering such a state of affairs ought to make a scene, name police and even “punch” the offender.
He mentioned officers questioned him in regards to the submit, and he defined it was a severe level expressed with humor.
A protester holds a trans pleasure flag throughout the demonstration in Piccadilly Circus. 1000’s of individuals marched by central London throughout Trans Pleasure 2023. (Vuk Valcic/SOPA Photographs/LightRocket by way of Getty Photographs)
London’s Metropolitan Police wouldn’t affirm the id of the suspect concerned within the incident. Nonetheless, in response to a Fox Information Digital inquiry about Linehan, a police spokesperson mentioned {that a} man in his 50s was arrested on suspicion of inciting violence “in relation to posts on X.” Different studies on the arrest have related this assertion to the incident involving Linehan.
Linehan mentioned the one restriction on his bail was that he was banned from utilizing X.
“I regarded on the single bail situation: I’m not to go on Twitter. That is it. No threats, no speeches in regards to the seriousness of my crimes – only a authorized gag order designed to close me up whereas I’m in the U.K., and a requirement I face an extra interview in October,” he wrote.
The previous comedy author added that the ordeal confirmed to him that “the U.Okay. has develop into a rustic that’s hostile to freedom of speech, hostile to girls, and much too accommodating to the calls for of violent, entitled, abusive males who’ve turned the police into their private goon squad.”
“Harry Potter” creator J.K. Rowling, who has additionally been an outspoken critic of trans activism, slammed the arrest, writing “What the f— has the U.Okay. develop into? That is totalitarianism. Totally deplorable.”
Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe mentioned, “Linehan at present, you tomorrow. Make your objections recognized now.”
“Britain is now a complete laughingstock – a rustic the place we arrest the authors of sunshine comedies and interrogate them about their tweets. It might be laughable if it wasn’t so severe,” Conservative Occasion MP Neil O’Brien wrote on X after the arrest.
Moreover, conservative activist Robby Starbuck slammed the U.Okay., saying the nation has “no free speech” and that “the emotions of transgenders [and] migrants come earlier than the rights of everybody else.”
J.Okay. Rowling speaks up on transgender individuals invading girls’s areas. (Getty Photographs)
The Free Speech Union, a corporation devoted to the protection of freedom of expression, additionally condemned the arrest and vowed to help Linehan.
“We don’t consider Graham’s arrest or the bail circumstances imposed have been lawful. We might be backing him all the way in which in his battle in opposition to these preposterous allegations and the disproportionate response from the police,” the group wrote on X.
Lord Toby Younger of Acton confirmed to Fox Information Digital that the Free Speech Union can be paying for Linehan’s authorized group.
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“The over-zealous policing of social media posts by the British police is popping the nation into a global laughingstock,” Younger informed Fox Information Digital. “It’s significantly egregious, provided that the police solely reply to 1 in 5 shoplifting offenses and 75% of burglaries went unsolved final 12 months. They’re policing our tweets on the expense of policing our streets.”
