Overview
- District Judge Briony Clarke delivered the split verdict at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 25 November after a trial held in September and October.
- Linehan, 57, was found guilty of criminal damage for taking and damaging transgender activist Sophia Brooks' phone during an exchange outside the Battle of Ideas conference on 19 October 2024.
- The judge said video showed Linehan acting out of anger and ruled he was not using reasonable force when he seized and threw the device.
- In acquitting him of harassment, the judge described his posts as deeply unpleasant but not oppressive, noted he rarely tagged the complainant, and found Brooks was not as distressed as claimed.
- The court said Linehan was generally a credible witness and questioned aspects of the complainant's honesty, and sentencing on the criminal damage conviction will be set at a later date.