{"id":655429,"date":"2026-10-15T11:10:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T11:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/655429\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T11:10:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T11:10:14","slug":"uk-police-force-ordered-to-reopen-inquiry-into-handling-of-graham-linehan-arrest-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/655429\/","title":{"rendered":"UK police force ordered to reopen inquiry into handling of Graham Linehan arrest \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">British police have been ordered to reinvestigate a complaint over the arrest of Father Ted co-creator <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/graham-linehan\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/graham-linehan\/\">Graham Linehan<\/a> after a watchdog found failings in its handling of the case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The 58-year-old Irish writer was arrested at Heathrow airport after flying in from Arizona in September 2025, on suspicion of inciting violence over three posts he made on X.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He subsequently received an apology from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/metropolitan-police\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/metropolitan-police\/\">Met Police<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/world\/uk\/2026\/07\/10\/graham-linehan-gets-reported-25000-settlement-from-uk-police-over-arrest-for-x-posts\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/world\/uk\/2026\/07\/10\/graham-linehan-gets-reported-25000-settlement-from-uk-police-over-arrest-for-x-posts\/\">a settlement following a civil claim<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Britain\u2019s Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) confirmed Linehan later sought a review of how the Met handled a complaint about the investigation into him and his treatment by officers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The application, received in May 2026, included \u201can allegation that he was discriminated against due to his gender-critical beliefs\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The watchdog ruled the Met\u2019s handling of Linehan\u2019s complaint was inadequate and ordered Scotland Yard to reinvestigate the allegation he had been discriminated against.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cIn October, we found the outcome of the complaint was not reasonable and proportionate and directed the Met to reinvestigate a number of the allegations made,\u201d an IOPC spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWe found that, during the complaint investigation, the force failed to provide satisfactory explanations for the grounds for the man\u2019s arrest and failed to pursue lines of inquiry regarding a complaint about the man\u2019s bail conditions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWe also directed them to reinvestigate the allegation that he was discriminated against.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The IOPC added: \u201cThe man will have a further right of review to the IOPC should he be dissatisfied with the outcome of the force\u2019s reinvestigation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Conservative politicians and Harry Potter author <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/jk-rowling\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/jk-rowling\/\">JK Rowling<\/a> had criticised Linehan\u2019s arrest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The Met has been contacted for comment. \u2013 PA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British police have been ordered to reinvestigate a complaint over the arrest of Father Ted co-creator Graham Linehan&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1460,42,6238,43,40,38,41,39,303],"class_list":["post-655429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-graham-linehan","tag-headlines","tag-metropolitan-police","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-united-kingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}