Graham Linehan, the Irish co-creator of TV comedy shows Father Ted and The IT Crowd, has been arrested on suspicion of inciting violence in relation to posts about transgender people on X.
Warning: This story contains information and language that some people might find offensive.
Linehan, 57, said five armed police officers escorted him off a flight at London's Heathrow Airport and told him he was under arrest for three posts.
London's Metropolitan Police said a man had been arrested on Monday, local time, after arriving on an American Airlines flight.
"The man in his 50s was arrested on suspicion of inciting violence," police said.
"This is in relation to posts on X."
He said in a statement on the Substack website that he had been interviewed by police about each of the posts.
While he was being questioned, a check by a nurse showed he had high blood pressure, and he was escorted to a hospital, where he was placed under observation, he said.
What did Linehan say?
Linehan has been a vocal critic of transgender rights on X, formerly known as Twitter, and other platforms.
In one of the posts on X, Linehan said that "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," he said.
The other two posts included a picture of what appears to be protesters on a crowded street corner with the words "a photo you can smell" attached to the post.
The third tweet was a reply to the photo, and it said "I hate them. Misogynists and homophobes", and it ended with an expletive.
Linehan defended his tweets in his article on Substack, saying, "I explained that the 'punch' tweet was a serious point made with a joke".
He said he told police it was "certainly not a call to violence".
According to his interpretation of his bail conditions, Linehan is "not to go on Twitter".
He said that this proves this is "just a legal gag order designed to shut me up while I'm (in) the UK, and a demand I face a further interview in October".
Criticism of comedian's arrest
The posts on X that Linehan was allegedly arrested over came just days after the head of the UK's Equality and Human Rights Commission said transgender women would be excluded from women-only spaces such as toilets, single-sex hospital wards and sports teams.
That decision followed a ruling by Britain's highest court that the terms "woman" and "man" refer to biological sex for antidiscrimination purposes.
In response to Linehan's arrest, author and outspoken critic of transgender rights, JK Rowling, said "this is totalitarianism", adding that it was "utterly deplorable".
Piers Morgan also thought the arrest was "absolutely ridiculous".
"When it comes to free speech, Britain's turning into North Korea," he said.
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch condemned the arrest.
"Sending five officers to arrest a man for a tweet isn't policing, it's politics," she said in a post on X.
"It's time this government told the police their job is to protect the public, not monitor social media for hurty words."
Conservative MP Claire Coutinho said: "Britain used to be known for its sense of humour, now the police are arresting people for making jokes."
Government's position is 'clear'
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer declined to comment on the arrest specifically, saying it is "an operational matter for the police".
However, a spokesperson for his office and UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said they had been clear about their "priorities for crime and policing".
"The prime minister and home secretary have been clear about where their priorities for crime and policing are, and that's tackling anti-social behaviour, shoplifting, street crime, as well as reducing serious violent crimes like knife crime and violence against women," the spokesperson told the BBC.
In response to a question about JK Rowling's post on X, the spokesperson said, "no" the UK is not a totalitarian state.
The UK's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) says that British law "recognises five types of hate crime on the basis of: Race, Religion, Disability, Sexual orientation, and Transgender identity".
Any crime can be prosecuted as a hate crime if the offender has "demonstrated hostility based on race, religion, disability, sexual orientation or transgender identity", the CPS website states.
ABC/wires
