A top Barrister has hit out at the Metropolitan Police after dropping charges against comedian Graham Linehan, branding the handling of his case a “disgrace”.
Speaking to GB News, Steven Barrett declared there are “very serious questions to answer” of the police force, who are “no longer interested in basic policing”.
Mr Linehan was arrested in September by five armed officers after arriving on a flight from the US at Heathrow Airport on suspicion of inciting violence in relation to his posts on X.
In an email to the Father Ted co-creator’s lawyers, a detective from the force wrote: “I am writing to inform you that following a review of the evidence by the Crown Prosecution Service, it has been determined that no further action will be taken in this matter.
“This decision means that no charges will be brought against Graham Linehan in relation to this allegation. Please note that this decision may be reconsidered if further evidence or information comes to light.”
Barrister Steven Barrett has launched a furious tirade on the Metropolitan Police after dropping charges against Graham Linehan
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PA / GB NEWS
Delivering his verdict on the decision by the police, Mr Barrett told GB News: “It is a victory, but the process is the punishment, and I think there are very serious questions for the Metropolitan Police now and I think we must ask them and they must be held to account.
“And I think the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, needs to look into this. And if she won’t, then I hope the Constitution works and her Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp looks into this, and demands answers for why the police were abused in this way.”
He added: “The bail conditions, which from the very beginning looked to me to be absolutely draconic and ridiculous, had to be challenged in court.
“But when Graham Linehan had to take the police to court in order to get out of these ridiculous bail conditions, they didn’t even fight it, they didn’t even turn up. So they must have known that the conditions were draconic and abusive.”
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The charges against Graham Linehan have been dropped | PACriticising the country’s police forces, Mr Barrett stated: “The Met has to really ask itself what it has become, and I think we have to ask ourselves what each of our police forces has become. Every single one of them seems to have a brainwashed chief constable who just spouts woke mantras and doesn’t seem to be terribly interested in in basic policing and is much more interested in thought policing and controlling ideas and arresting people for for wrong thing.
“And I think we really have to question what the College of Policing has done, where these people have come from and whether we just go back to an old style recruitment method of working their way up from the beat, which seemed to ensure that we got respectable chief constables.”
Calling on Met Police Commissioner to “resign” over “yet another abuse of power”, he fumed: “I struggle now to find a chief constable I actively respect.
“I think the chief constable of the Metropolitan Police is a complete and utter disgrace and should have resigned over any of the many scandals which have plagued him, but this is yet another abuse of power by the police.”
Mr Barrett told GB News that the handling of Mr Linehan has been a ‘disgrace’
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GB NEWS
Asked by host Martin Daubney when the “madness will end”, Mr Barrett told GB News: “It will not end until we rip DEI (Diversity, Equality and Inclusion) out of the system. If you want power in this country, if you want wealth in this country, if you want success in this country, if you need bells, whistles or just a house to live in, then you must comply with DEI.
“And when the police do this, they’re acting like the militant enforcers of DEI, they are politicised police. They are effectively a Stasi. They are enforcing the official political narrative, which is that you will support DEI, which says that you have to lie and say that men can become women when they can’t. Graham Linehan will not lie and therefore he must be crushed, the state must crush him in some way.”
Reacting to the news, Mr Linehan stated: “The police have informed my lawyers that I face no further action in respect of the arrest at Heathrow in September.
“After a successful hearing to get my bail conditions lifted, the Crown Prosecution Service has dropped the case.
“With the aid of the Free Speech Union, I still aim to hold the police accountable for what is only the latest attempt to silence and suppress gender critical voices on behalf of dangerous and disturbed men.”
