At 2.55pm today, the Honourable Mrs Justice Tibbles overturned Graham Linehan’s conviction for criminal damage to a trans activist’s phone, on the basis that she and her panel could not be sure that Linehan caused the alleged damage to the phone.
Speaking afterwards Linehan said: “The decision of the court to throw out this case is very welcome, but it should never have got to court in the first place. There’s been a troubling pattern of police forces around the country to believe trans rights activists, time and time again, even when there’s been overwhelming evidence that complaints have been made against gender-critical campaigners in bad faith…. I have suffered greatly in my fight to protect women and children from what I believe to be a dangerous ideology but I am proud that I have never given in, and I will not do so.”
The judging panel came to its conclusion after hearing the case for the prosecution and deciding there was nothing the defence could tell it which would help them decide on the central issue.
The facts are that on 19 October 2024 outside Church House in Westminster, Graham Linehan grabbed Sophia Brooks’ phone out of his hand and threw it to the floor. Brooks was filming Linehan and questioning him at the time.
Brooks claimed Linehan had caused £369 worth of damage to his phone – based on a damage repair estimate he got from the Apple Store in London’s Regent Street some time after the event. He also produced as evidence some undated photos of scratch marks to a phone, which Brooks alleged was the same phone as the one Linehan threw. This was enough for District Judge Briony Clarke who convicted Linehan of criminal damage in November last year.
Today, Tibbles J and her panel took a different view. In giving her panel’s reasons she told the court Brooks’ phone was four years old. There were no photos around the time of the incident and the only ones submitted as evidence were undated. She doubted Brooks’ evidence that the phone was in immaculate condition on the day it was thrown by Linehan as Brooks was attending “a very busy conference and we do not accept there was time to inspect the phone as to its condition.”
The judge also noted the fact that the initial complaints against Linehan didn’t mention the alleged phone damage at all. She also took into account the fact Brooks admitted getting Linehan convicted would be a “scalp” for trans activists.
She concluded: “we cannot be sure that the damage to the Complainant’s phone was caused by Mr Linehan on 19 Oct when he took the phone. We therefore find Mr Linehan Not Guilty of criminal damage and the appeal against the conviction of Nov 2025 is allowed.”
At this moment Linehan looked round to the supporters in the public gallery behind him and smiled. One member of the gallery loudly shouted “YES!!”. There was a long pause. The judge said if there was another interruption she would have the court cleared. I kept watching Glinner.
As the judge continued speaking, a rush of emotion hit him and he exhaled audibly. His head sank for a moment, but he soon recovered himself. The judging panel rose and Glinner stood to shake the hand of his solicitor, Daniel Berke. Warm smiles all round. Linehan then walked over to the public gallery where a motley crew of supporters hugged him and shook his hand. Sophia Brooks and Stephanie Hayden, who had accompanied Brooks to court today, were not present.
On the steps of the court I asked Linehan what the last few months had been like. He said “You know what? I’m so used to being in this situation. I’m still being sued by another trans activist, so it’s not over for me. So I don’t really have a sense of relief. It’s just an ongoing thing that I’ve been putting up with for the last 10 years. So it’s just my life now. You know? But having said that, I’m hugely relieved, and I’m looking forward to texting my mum.”
Asked if he thought appealing such a minor crime was worth the court’s time, Linehan said “I don’t accept that anyone should have a criminal charge, because they reacted to the endless provocation of trans rights activists, who work in completely bad faith. The complainant today had the assistance of one man who’s been arrested recently, for harassing people, and another man who’s a history of fraud, and battery, and a history of basically lying to authorities. So I just felt it was important to make sure that none of us who’ve been fighting against these men suffer because of it, or suffer any more than they have to. I’m hoping that this will mean that women in the future, who are mainly the targets of these guys, won’t have to go through what I just went through.”
Daniel Berke, Linehan’s solicitor thought the whole thing was a colossal waste of public resources: “there has been an unfortunate habit of believing complainants from certain culture categories. It’s not the job of the police to believe, it’s to treat everybody equally, fairly, and with respect, and to investigate. And I do feel like it was lacking in this case. So Graham’s been through a couple of years of tremendous pressure. He shouldn’t have ever been charged.”
Jill Levene, from the Free Speech Union, which backed Linehan at his original trial and during this appeal, said: “We’re delighted that this conviction was quashed today and that justice was done for Graham. It’s been a very traumatic time for him and it’s clear to the court that the evidence of criminal damage was not made out.”
Levene says this results demonstrates the importance of the FSU. “We want to ensure wherever there’s a situation where justice is not made available to people who are fighting the cause of freedom of speech that we’re there to secure their rights and if that means defending cases that shouldn’t have been brought then that’s what we’ll do.”
Linehan was a suspect in a criminal investigation for most of 2025, and has had a criminal conviction against his name for the last six months. He has been required to fly from his home in Arizona to attend various court hearings and he has suffered the usual online pillorying (whilst giving as good as he gets). His prosecution and subsequent appeal has brought into the open the methods of the people who sought to target him. You can read about them in my court report from yesterday, yesterday’s live tweets and today’s live tweets, which have already been formatted and posted up on this website here.
After the case was heard Linehan and his supporters made their way from Southwark Crown Court to nearby Hay’s Galleria for a celebratory pint. Linehan stayed for one and then made his excuses. He was afforded a round of applause as he departed.
My work on this website is entirely funded by donation. If you would like to make a one-off contribution and receive the Gender Blog newsletter and blog posts in your email inbox you can sign up here. Your email address will be stored securely and confidentially, never given to a third party and will only be used to inform you about things I think are interesting. If you have a story, please use the contact form. All messages go directly and securely to my email inbox and will be dealt with in the utmost confidence.
Leave a Reply to Steve Walker Cancel reply