Some good news and some bad news.

Graham Linehan has been cleared of harassing a trans activist on social media at Westminster Magistrates Court but convicted of criminal damage for knocking an activist’s phone out of his hand when he thrust it in his face.

It seems to me that if someone thrusts a hard object (i.e. not a wooly hat or similar) in your face you have every right to bat that hand away. It’s called self-defense.

A top-flight legal team, provided by the FSU, who persuaded Judge Clarke that @Glinner’s comments on the trans debate did not satisfy the legal definition of harassment.

The judge said that she did not believe that the alleged ‘victim’ “was giving entirely truthful evidence”, whereas Graham was a credible witness: “While firm in his view on the sex and gender debate, he was not seeking to mislead the court.”

The Court rejected the CPS’s arguments that Graham’s gender-critical posts were “unacceptable”.

This part of the result is a real victory for free speech. However, we’re concerned about the decision to convict Graham of criminal damage.

Gender-critical events across the country have been the target of aggressive protests by trans activists seeking to exercise a heckler’s veto. Some of these protests have descended into violence.

Graham was attending such an event last year when he was confronted by one such protester who aggressively shoved a phone into his face. Graham reacted instinctively, knocking the phone out of his hand. Rather than investigate the incident impartially, the authorities took the side of the trans activist.

We think allowing activists to disrupt events in this way undermines free speech because it allows extremists to shut down perfectly lawful speech that they disagree with.

Graham is going to appeal this verdict and the Free Speech Union will pay his legal costs in full.

Our right to smack away hard objects roughly shoved in our faces is at stake.