Bafta award-winning creator of Father Ted reported to police in online row with transgender activist

The creator of hit show Father Ted has become entangled in a bitter row with a transgender activist who he claims published his family’s private information online.

Addresses linked to Graham Linehan’s wife’s company were allegedly tweeted by Stephanie Hayden – an activist with a history of threatening Twitter users with legal action and reporting reporting them to police if they disagree with her.

Mr Linehan, 50, was reported to Norfolk police for ‘transphobic harassment’ earlier this week after he shared a post with his 672,000 followers that included Ms Hayden’s aliases.

The scriptwriter said he shared the details because he believed Ms Hayden to be ‘a dangerous troll,’ reports the Times.

Ms Hayden, 45, has previously been known as Tony Halliday and Steven Hayden.

Scriptwriter Mr Linehan claimed that the private details were posted because Ms Hayden was ‘trying to shut me up by attacking my wife’ in retaliation for him posting details about her past.

Mr Linehan, 50, was reported to Norfolk police for ‘transphobic harassment’ earlier this week. Hitting back at Hayden on Twitter, he claimed:'[Ms Hayden] explains how it’s perfectly legal and normal to have multiuple identities but if you don’t call him the female one you’re doing a hate crime’

Scriptwriter Mr Linehan claimed that the private details were posted because Ms Hayden was ‘trying to shut me up by attacking my wife’ in retaliation for him posting details about her past.  Ms Hayden said on a statement on Twitter: ‘I will make no comments about Graham Linehan as he is the subject of a criminal investigation’

Linehan, a Bafta award winning comedy writer, is the co-creator and writer of hit TV shows including The IT Crowd and Father Ted, and once helped to produce an episode of Little Britain.

Born in Ireland in 1968, he made his first steps in the entertainment industry writing for Hot Press, an Irish music and politics magazine.

Mr Lineham said: ‘I won’t stop talking about this.

‘There’s this unquestioning reverence for anyone who says they are transgender, but this unquestioning loyalty is really dangerous.

‘Hayden is trying to shut me up by attacking my wife.

Graham Linehan, above, is the co-creator of Father Ted and The IT Crowd. Addresses linked to Linehan’s wife’s company were allegedly tweeted by transgender activist and lawyer Stephanie Hayden

‘The only thing the extremists will accept in this conversation is complete capitulation but I won’t stop talking about this.’ 

‘Once people start silencing views, they start thinking they can get away with anything.’

Publishing such details online is known as doxxing.  

Ms Hayden has accused Sussex University of being a ‘temple of transgender hate’, which the university later denied.

She is not listed on any professional legal body, despite describing herself as a lawyer.

She wrote on Twitter: ‘I was saying only the other day that transgender hostile feminists are getting more and more desperate as their transphobia is rejected by mainstream society.

Father Ted is a British comedy series focussing on priests who live on an island. With actors Derret Morgan, left, and Ardal O’Hanton, right, Father Ted is sent to the island as punishment for stealing money fundraised for a sick child [File photo]

‘Just had a discussion with Norfolk Constabulary. They have confirmed that they are treating the matter as a crime and are commencing their investigations.  

‘Now that Norfolk Police have opened a criminal investigation I will no longer be making any further substantive comment about Graham Linehan.

‘In due course I will also commence High Court proceedings.’

Ms Hayden said on a statement on Twitter: ‘I will make no comments about Graham Linehan as he is the subject of a criminal investigation. 

‘Linehan’s allegations that I ‘doxxed’ his wife are denied.’