Father Ted creator charged with criminal damage and harassment as he issues statement

Graham Linehan, who co-created the sitcom Father Ted, has been charged with criminal damage and harassment. The Irish comedy writer, 56, is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on May 12. The charges reportedly relate to an incident at the Battle of Ideas festival on October 19 last year.

The five-time Bafta award winner, who is a known anti-transgender activist, told the : "This is part of a long history of the police acting as a goon squad for trans rights activists." He went on to make allegations about the alleged victim, admitting that he is looking forward to "exposing him and them in court". A CPS spokesperson said: "Graham Linehan is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court for a first hearing to face charges of harassment without violence and criminal damage on 12 May."

Linehan is also known for co-creating the sitcoms Black Books, and The IT Crowd, and has written for shows such as Count Arthur Strong, Brass Eye and The Fast Show.

Linehan is a vocal critic of the trans-rights movement and previously claimed that his career and marriage were destroyed over his gender-critical views. He said trans women should be excluded from women's spaces as they were not women.

Linehan recently praised the Supreme Court's decision to confirm that the word woman is based on biological sex.

This means that only people who are born female should be protected from discrimination as a woman under the 2010 Equality Act.

In an 88-page ruling, the justices said: "The definition of sex in the Equality Act 2010 makes clear that the concept of sex is binary, a person is either a woman or a man."

The dispute centred on whether or not somebody with a gender recognition certificate recognising their gender as female should be treated as a woman under the 2010

Conservative Leader celebrated the ruling, writing online: "Saying 'trans women are women' was never true in fact and now isn't true in law, either. A victory for all of the women who faced personal abuse or lost their jobs for stating the obvious.

"Women are women and men are men: you cannot change your biological sex. The era of telling us that some women have penises has come to an end. Hallelujah!"