"I was first approached by Tarquin when I arrived at the venue and I was subject to a form of harassment with Tarquin approaching me and filming me at close quarters. This typically involved placing a phone immediately in front of someone's face only a few inches away and filming them while trying to provoke a reaction. People often try to block the phone and Tarquin treats that as a game."
"He had no respect at all for people's privacy or personal space. I had to try to ignore Tarquin as much as possible but was then confronted by Tarquin again at the end of the conference. Tarquin made a provocative statement about my current family position. I am now divorced and this is a very sensitive subject for me as he well knows."
"The taunting from Tarquin was completely unnecessary. In response I grabbed the phone and threw it to one side. I had had enough of the constant harassment from Tarquin and needed to stop him from taunting me any further. I did not intend to cause any damage and I do not know if it was damaged or not, it was a"
Graham Linehan is on trial at Westminster magistrates court charged with harassing a teenage activist on social media between 11 and 27 October and with criminal damage to a mobile phone on 19 October. Linehan denies the charges. Linehan and the activist met outside the Battle of Ideas conference on 19 October. Linehan gave a prepared statement in a police interview on 5 February, referring to the activist as Tarquin, saying he was filmed at close quarters and subjected to repeated provocation. Linehan says he grabbed and threw the phone to stop the taunting, did not intend damage, and does not know if the phone was damaged.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]