Police apologise for causing him 'considerable distress'

 Graham Linehan has received a £25,000 settlement over his arrest for anti-trans tweets.

The Metropolitan Police has also apologised to the Father Ted co-creator over his arrest at Heathrow airport in September last year. A spokesperson said they ‘recognise the considerable distress caused to Mr Linehan, and have offered our sincere apologies’.

Linehan, who now lives in Arizona, said the money will be ‘very handy’ as ‘I have been on my uppers over the past few years for fighting against this madness.’  

He was arrested over tweets including one which 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 balls.’

Police confirmed he was subsequently investigated for a ‘non-crime hate incident’, an controversial tool that critics have branded an assault on free speech. The Met subsequently announced it would no longer investigate such incidents

Immediately following the arrest, Linehan, 58, was taken to hospital for high blood pressure. He was banned from posting to X for a while under his bail conditions.

The writer was supported through the civil claim by campaign group the Free Speech Union, which cited the £25,000 figure.

They said that the letter from a senior officer to Linehan read: ‘Whilst there can be no doubt that all officers acted in good faith throughout and were seeking to do their best in the circumstances, the investigation identified shortcomings in both the investigation, arrest and imposition of bail conditions. We apologise to you for those shortcomings and for the distress and inconvenience which you suffered as a result.’

General secretary of the Free Speech Union, Lord Young, said: ‘I'm beginning to lose count of the number of cases we've fought in which the police have arrested someone for a tweet, decided to take no further action and then had to pay them substantial compensation for wrongful arrest. At some point you'd think the penny would drop: police our streets, not our tweets.’

Published: 9 Jul 2026