The deck is stacked
Lynsay Watson in the news some more.
Last month, the comedy writer Graham Linehan was arrested at Heathrow airport by five armed police officers for comments he had made on social media.
At the time of his detention, Linehan was returning to London from his home in the US to defend himself in court against accusations by a young trans campaigner of harassment and criminal damage, both of which he denies.
In an entirely separate case, The Times reported that a retired police superintendent had discovered that Lincolnshire police had recorded a “non-hate crime incident” against her without her knowledge.
Cathy Larkman had been flagged for tweets rejecting the idea that trans women were the same as biological women and so should have access to their private spaces.
I am so tired of people being persecuted by the police for refusing to pretend that people can change sex.
Linehan and Larkman both claim to have been reported to the police by a trans activist named Lynsay Watson.
It has been revealed that Watson — a transgender former police officer — has made a series of complaints against individuals who, like Larkman and Linehan, express gender-critical views.
Three of those who say they were subject to complaints have come forward to this newspaper to allege the experience has had a destructive effect on their lives and mental health. They have also spoken of their anger at the police for entertaining Watson’s allegations and failing to investigate the former officer for what they say are “vexatious” complaints.
Watson, you will be astonished to hear, says his complaints are not vexatious.
Along with the police complaints, Watson is known to have instigated court actions against institutions including the British Transport Police Federation, Greater Manchester police, Leicestershire police and Police Appeals Tribunals.
And then there’s Sandie Peggie.
There had been safety concerns relating to Peggie’s legal team after it emerged that a social media account believed to be run by Watson had encouraged members of the public to make a citizen’s arrest of the lawyers defending Peggie, as well as the judge.
Vexatious enough yet?
Watson had also been making complaints about Miller to Lincolnshire police — the force that policed the area where he lived — alleging harassment and hate speech in relation to gender critical tweets he had posted. Those complaints were not upheld.
In November, Miller was questioned under caution by Lincolnshire police after another complaint by Watson about a social media post that welcomed the force’s decision to sack
her. Miller was also accused by Watson of misgendering in an article he had written about his ordeal withherfor The Critic magazine. Again, Miller was released with no further action.
Don’t call him “her”. One, it’s a lie, and two, it simply acts to legitimize his loathsome bullying.
Charlotte Cadden, who served with Greater Manchester police as a detective chief inspector until January this year, said she had been called in front of her superior officers in February 2024 after a complaint from Watson.
Cadden, who founded Police SEEN UK, a campaign group for serving police officers with gender-critical beliefs, said she was informed by her line manager that she had been accused of “spreading transphobia” across the UK. She said the complaint put her under serious stress, making her fear for her job.
The complaint was not taken any further but soon afterwards she began getting abusive tweets from the account named SEEN Police Official Open Public Network on the social media site Bluesky. One message, which the security minister Dan Jarvis MP was copied on, accused her of starting a “secret society for anti-LGBT bigots”.
…
Cadden believes that Watson is behind the SEEN police Official Open Public Network account, and after that post she decided to report the trans activist to the police.
In a witness statement to Greater Manchester police in April this year, she described the toll the alleged “harassment” was having on her. She said: “I live alone with my disabled son and I feel that the harassment of me by Lynsay Watson that started in February 2024 is now escalating.
“It is causing me anxiety and affecting my sleep. The recent threat to start targeting my partner has increased the anxiety that I feel.”
However, she claims her complaint was simply passed between Greater Manchester police and Lincolnshire police and that neither took any action.
Same old same old. The police spring into action at every trivial complaint from Watson and ignore his genuine harassment of others. Why??? What is it about trans ideology that melts people’s brains so fast and so thoroughly?
There’s a lot more; read the whole thing.

On the “why is Watson taken seriously but complaints about Watson are not”, I believe Helen Joyce, another of Watson’s targets, has spoken on this issue on the SEEN in Journalism podcast. I believe it’s a structural issue, from memory.
What’s the next charge likely to be? Insulting the gods? Being found guilty and forced to drink a cup of poison?
(See Plato’s Apology for further details and discussion.)
https://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/apology/summary/
For Omar:
— Woody Allen, “My Apology” (1980)
‘SEEN Police Official Open Public Network’. Hur-hur, it’s funny ‘cos it spells ‘SEEN POOP Network’. Nothing at all infantile about that.
Wasn’t Socrates’ REAL crime calling for a gang of aristocratic adolescent twits (see the junior Trumps or Musk’s brood) in his circle to be in charge rather than the Athenian democracy of the moment?
Brian: His argument for philosopher-kings. Just goes to show that it’s possible to be wise and wrong at the same time. (Good for a first try.) And Trump could pass as a philosopher, in the dusk with the light behind him, and a howling tornado drowning out every word he said, and blowing to buggery anything he wrote down on paper.