England: Graham Linehan awarded £25,000 after Met apologises over arrest

Scotland Yard acknowledged “shortcomings in the investigation, the arrest and the imposition of bail conditions” following the incident at Heathrow Airport in September last year, when Mr Linehan was detained by five armed officers after a complaint about posts on X.

He was arrested on suspicion of a public order offence, questioned for several hours and later released on bail with conditions preventing him from posting on X. During his detention, he was taken to hospital after suffering dangerously high blood pressure.

Backed by the Free Speech Union, Mr Linehan brought legal action against the force for wrongful arrest and alleged breaches of his free speech rights.

In a letter to Mr Linehan, a senior Metropolitan Police officer wrote: “Whilst there can be no doubt that all officers acted in good faith throughout and were seeking to do their best in the circumstances, the investigation identified shortcomings in both the investigation, arrest and imposition of bail conditions.

“We apologise to you for those shortcomings and for the distress and inconvenience which he suffered as a result.”

In one post, he had written: “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.”

Speaking from his home in Arizona, Mr Linehan said the compensation would be welcome because “I have been on my uppers over the past few years for fighting against this madness.”

Lord Young of Acton, general secretary of the Free Speech Union, said: “I’m beginning to lose count of the number of cases we’ve fought in which the police have arrested someone for a tweet, decided to take no further action and then had to pay them substantial compensation for wrongful arrest.

“At some point you’d think the penny would drop: police our streets, not our tweets.”

A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: “We recognise the considerable distress caused to Mr Linehan, and have offered our sincere apologies. This case prompted a significant change, which means the Met no longer investigates non-crime hate incidents.

“We believe this will provide clearer direction for officers, reduce ambiguity and enable them to focus on matters that meet the threshold for criminal investigations.”