Met Police issue apology to Graham Linehan over ‘unacceptable’ arrest for gender-critical posts

He was questioned for several hours about posts he made in April last year which were reported by Lynsay Watson, a trans activist and former police officer.

Mr Linehan complained the arrest was unlawful and an abuse of his freedom of expression rights under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

The comedy writer has now received an apology from Scotland Yard after a five-month internal investigation, according to a report seen by The Telegraph.

Inspector Matt Hume, from the Met Police’s directorate of professional standards, said in a report: "I accept that the service provided was not acceptable and recognise the distress and impact this matter has caused Mr Linehan."

Mr Linehan's arrest came after he made a series of gender-critical posts on social media.

In one post he said: "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."

And in another, he posted a picture of a trans rights demonstration, captioned: "A photo you can smell."

The Met Police concluded the arrest was lawful, but aspects of the investigation were flawed and misunderstood.

Officers focused on the gender-critical nature of Mr Linehan's posts and inadequately on the alleged incitement to violence.

Mr Hume added: "I therefore accept that, at times, both the investigation and arrest phases lacked the diligence one would expect from the [Metropolitan Police]."

The investigation was also negatively affected by an overworked trainee detective who was placed in charge of the case, and poor supervision from his bosses.

Mr Hume said: "I apologise to Mr Linehan for the shortcomings in this investigation. The Met Police remains committed to lawful, proportionate policing and to learning from failings when they arise."

After dropping its case against the the Irish comedy writer, the Met Police announced it would no longer investigate non-crime hate incidents.

The force will, however, continue to record them to assess potential community tensions.

Sir Mark Rowley, the Met Commissioner, wrote to Yvette Cooper, then Home Secretary, said unclarity around hate crime laws had left officers "between a rock and a hard place".

Since then, the Met has introduced guidelines instructing officers to focus on "grossly offensive" content and cases which pose "the most risk".

Lord Young of Acton, General Secretary of the Free Speech Union (FSU), said: "The FSU welcomes this apology and the acknowledgement that the arrest and detention of Graham Linehan was an unacceptable interference in his right to free speech.

"We look forward to working with the Met Police and other police services to ensure their response to complaints about social media posts in future has due regard to freedom of expression."