THE creator of Father Ted claims he has been arrested by armed police at Heathrow Airport after three gender-critical tweets.
Irish comedy writer Graham Linehan says he was detained as soon as he disembarked a plane coming in from Arizona.
The 57-year-old says he was arrested for three tweets.
One from April 20 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.”
Another tweet he alleges he was arrested for was picture of a trans demonstration.
He wrote above it: “A photo you can smell.”
The third was a follow up which read: “I hate them. Misogynists and homophobes. F*** em.”
He claimed he was then escorted to hospital because the stress caused his blood pressure to skyrocket.
The Father Ted creator wrote on his blog: “The moment I stepped off the plane at Heathrow, five armed police officers were waiting. Not one, not two—five.
“They escorted me to a private area and told me I was under arrest for three tweets.
“I 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—all because I made jokes that upset some psychotic crossdressers.
“To me, this proves one thing beyond doubt: the UK has become a country that is hostile to freedom of speech, hostile to women, and far too accommodating to the demands of violent, entitled, abusive men who have turned the police into their personal goon squad.”
Linehan shared a photo seemingly from hospital and screenshots of his tweets.
The five-time Bafta award winner has previously slammed Harry Potter author JK Rowling for not defending him from backlash over his gender-critical views.
He is accused of abusing trans activist Sophia Brooks on social media and smashing her phone in October but pleaded not guilty to the hate crime charges.
The IT Crowd co-creator, who has also written for Brass Eye and The Fast Show, has a long-standing history of criticising the trans-rights movement.
Rowling has also come under fire for comments made in the past towards trans people.
In 2020, the esteemed author slammed the growing trend of replacing “biological sex” with “gender identity”.
Her stance, that declared “sex is real”, led to death threats, but also moulded her into a figurehead for the “gender-critical” movement.
Activists accused her of transphobia in 2020 when replying to an article with the headline: “Opinion: Creating a more equal post Covid-19 world for people who menstruate.”
She tweeted: “‘People who menstruate’. I’m sure there used to be a word for those people.
“Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?”
Her remarks led to criticism from Potter actors Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, who ignored the fact her books had made them famous to launch a string of attacks.
It was Rowling’s beloved group For Women Scotland which also launched a long-running legal battle with the Scottish government over how a “woman” was defined in Scottish law.
The Scottish government had argued people with gender recognition certificates (GRCs) should be protected from sex-based discrimination, meaning a transwoman would be considered a woman.
However, campaign group For Women Scotland claimed this only applied to people born as a female.
In April, the Supreme Court’s landmark judgement ruled that it was unanimously determined “sex is binary” and that female-only spaces must be protected on the basis of biology.
Hailing the landmark decision, Tory Leader Kemi Badenoch said: “Saying ‘trans women are women’ was never true in fact, and now isn’t true in law either.
“This is 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.”