Graham Linehan arrested on arrival at Heathrow Part 2

[IDareSay]

First thread here

Started thread 2 as this seems destined to run for some time...

Nick Wallis has tweeted photos from outside the court - quite a few film crews, the guy with the sandwich board that was there yesterday and some youths in face masks.

I guess the court will decide.

You’ll see in the actual tweet he’s advocating self defence for females against predatory males: ‘if all else fails.’

He’s not holding up signs at demos advocating for Terfs to be decapitated & hung. You’re right, the men holding up these signs inciting violence against women should be arrested. They haven’t been.

Court room filling up:

I am now in court, same seat as yesterday. Graham Linehan (GL) is sitting directly opposite me on the other side of the courtroom - outside the dock. The public gallery is once more heaving. @ThePosieParker
is in the public gallery with a few other veterans of the gender wars.

Girls always used to be advised that the way to discourage a male assailant was a knee in the nuts. Adult men always knew that disrespectful and dangerous young lads should be admonished, and chastised if that didn't work - that was one of their duties.

How life has changed in the last - decade? Two decades?

Which is wrong, obviously.

The complainant - Sophia Brooks (SB) has plentiful supporters as well. Initially SB and two friends were going to sit at the back of court, but there's been a bit of a kerfuffle (one fell out of their seat and has been telling prosecuting counsel that something isn't acceptable)

That tweet isn't part of this court case, just more evidence of the misuse of the police to harrass someone.

God, I hope that was Tony.

Thank you, that was my worry. When the police seem to only choose to investigate one side, while turning a blind eye to far more egregious things on the other, never mind actual bog standard crimes, it feels incredibly disproportionate.

Great, thanks!

Hope your leg gets better soon x

If it goes to court.

... and it seems they've all now been moved to the public gallery. So the main well of the court is now just lawyers and hacks. Not as many journalists as yesterday (first day of a trial always attracts more attention), but often the more interesting details come up later on...

Yesterday the judge told court that prosecuting counsel would use female pronouns to describe SB, defence counsel would call him Ms Brooks and GL would describe him as a man. The judge made the point very clearly there would be no compelled speech in her courtroom. To that end..

Anyway, I hope Glinner can keep his cool today. I have very little hope actually.

Because the prosecuting counsel will do her best to rile him, knowing what he's like.

I will mainly be using sex-based pronouns throughout my reporting unless quoting others. I have no desire to be discourteous to anyone, it comes from a personal and professional desire to describe reality/the world as it is.

Hahahaha brilliant.

Also PLEASE NOTE - everything I tweet is a summary and/or chracterisation of what is being said or happening in court NOT a verbatim record. Nothing is a direct quote unless I put it in "direct quotes".

Is Fred drunk already?

I’m imagining a Princess & The Pea type scenario here. These men are so delicate 😄

Judge is in court, but deaiing with her list. Currently discussing a completely different case.

Yesterday the atmosphere was very relaxed. Today it seems quite charged. Despite fewer media we were all ticketed and the ushers were a lot stricter today.

Prosecuting counsel is Julia Faure Walker who I will likely call P for proescutor. GL's counsel is Sarah Vine KC who I called SV yesterday which got slightly confusing with SB, especially as B and V are next to each other on the keyboard. I might try DC for Defence Counsel...

.. with D for defendant (ie GL). J for judge obvs. Once the youngest ever female judge in the country #trufact

What else can I tell you? It's hot and stuffy - the judge has already said people can take their jackets off and steps are being taken to keep the lawyers watered. I am not sure if steps are being taken to deal with the aircon, but it is mildly uncomfortable.

I liked Megyn Kelly's analysis, though it left me with an annoying earworm which I will now share:

Three mean tweets,
Three mean tweets,
See nasty words,
See nasty words,
Correct-sexing Tarquin was really too bad,
He called all this mates and they saw he was sad,
Did you ever think that the world has gone mad,
Over three mean tweets?

Thanks again for the updates @SabrinaThwaite 👍