Five armed police officers have arrested Irish sitcom writer Graham Linehan at London’s Heathrow Airport over social media posts deemed to be “anti-trans” by the UK’s socialist government.
Linehan, best known for creating the hit TV shows “Father Ted” and “The IT Crowd,” says he was treated “like a terrorist” over a series of gender-critical posts on X.
The 57-year-old Irishman was detained as he stepped off an American Airlines flight from Arizona to London.
According to Linehan, police informed him he was “under arrest for three tweets.”
Officers then escorted him to a private area before taking him into custody.
The Metropolitan Police confirmed Linehan was arrested around 1 p.m. Monday “on suspicion of inciting violence … in relation to posts on X.”
Linehan said he was “arrested at an airport like a terrorist, locked in a cell like a criminal, taken to hospital because the stress nearly killed me, and banned from speaking online.”
“In a country where pedophiles escape sentencing, where knife crime is out of control, where women are assaulted and harassed every time they gather to speak, the state had mobilised five armed officers to arrest a comedy writer for this tweet,” he added.
The X posts in question included one from April 20, in which the comic wrote:
“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 balls.”
Another post on April 19 showed a photo of a trans rally with the caption: “A photo you can smell.”
A third followed up: “I hate them. Misogynists and homophobes. F** em.”*
Linehan said his blood pressure spiked above 200mmHg during the ordeal and that officers escorted him to A&E.
At Heathrow police station, he was placed in a green-tiled cell, stripped of his belongings, and later interrogated for expressing wrongthink.
His bail condition is a ban on using X until his next police interview in October.
The arrest comes amid a wave of so-called “tweet police” cases in the UK.
The most high-profile was Lucy Connolly, the wife of a Conservative Party councillor.
Connolly was jailed for 31 months over a post after young children were murdered during the Southport attack.
Conservative MP Neil O’Brien condemned Linehan’s arrest:
“Britain is now a total laughing stock – a country where we arrest the authors of light comedies and interrogate them about their tweets.
“It would be laughable if it wasn’t so serious.”
The Met Police defended its actions in a statement:
“On Monday, 1 September at 13:00hrs, officers arrested a man at Heathrow Airport after he arrived on an inbound American Airlines flight.
“The man in his 50s was arrested on suspicion of inciting violence. …
“His condition is neither life-threatening nor life-changing.
“He has now been bailed pending further investigation.”
Linehan is separately facing trial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court this week on unrelated charges of allegedly harassing transgender activist Sophia Brooks and damaging his phone.
He pleaded not guilty in May.
Linehan, once a highly regarded and critically acclaimed figure in British comedy, has seen his career collapse in recent years due to his outspoken gender-critical stance.
He has also accused author J.K. Rowling of failing to defend him after he publicly supported her opposition to Scotland’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill.
READ MORE – UK Government Flagged Almost Half of Own Citizens for ‘Terrorist’ Ideology
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