The Metropolitan Police have apologised to comedian and campaigner Graham Linehan and acknowledged his “considerable distress” for his arrest over his posts on X in September 2025.
Five armed Heathrow airport officers detained the Irish comedy writer on suspicion of inciting hatred under the Public Order Act as he returned from Arizona.
The BBC understands a settlement has been reached, which is reported to be £25,000.
In a video reacting to the news, Linehan, who now lives in Arizona, said the money will be “very handy” given he has been “fighting against this madness”.
A spokesperson for the Met said they “recognise the considerable distress caused to Mr Linehan, and have offered our sincere apologies”.
They had already apologised to Linehan in May, but issued a second apology as well as the settlement.
Following the arrest, Linehan was taken to hospital after officials became concerned for his health when they took his blood pressure.
His condition was “neither life-threatening nor life-changing” the police said at the time, and he was bailed “pending further investigation”.
Police confirmed the incident Linehan was arrested for was subsequently investigated as a non-crime hate incident.
The arrest sparked a mixture of reaction from politicians and public figures and created a debate around policing and free speech.
A month after the arrest, in October 2025, the Met announced it would no longer investigate non-crime hate incidents to allow officers to “focus on matters that meet the threshold for criminal investigations”.
The force also said it was dropping the probe into Linehan.
Non-crime hate incidents are alleged acts perceived to be motivated by hostility or prejudice towards people with certain characteristics, such as race or transgender identity.
They are recorded to collect data but do not amount to a criminal offence.
Speaking to BBC News in September, Linehan said: “I don’t regret anything I’ve tweeted – sometimes I’ve tweeted a bit more out of anger, because of the frustration that no-one’s paying attention to this issue.”
He said he was arrested over three posts on his X account.
The first post said: “If a trans-identified male is in a female-only space, he is committing a violent, abusive act. Make a scene, call the cops and if all else fails, punch him in the balls.”
His second post from X appeared to be an aerial shot of a group of protesters in a town centre, and he called it “a photo you can smell”.
The third expressed his views, in which he said “I hate them”, referring to “misogynists and homophobes”, adding an expletive.
Linehan was supported through the civil claim by the advocacy group the Free Speech Union.
The group said it welcomed the second apology and settlement, but said Linehan should not have been arrested to begin with.
In a statement, general secretary Lord Toby Young said it is the union’s “third case in which we’ve helped a member of ours secure substantial compensation for wrongful arrest and I hope the message gets through to the police that merely offending or upsetting someone is not, by itself, a criminal offence”.
He said it is a “positive development” that the Met are no longer investigating non-crime hate incidents, adding: “I hope they’ll go further and stop arresting people for tweets.
“They really shouldn’t be wasting their time on social media spats when so many crimes are going unsolved.”
It comes two months after, in a separate case, Linehan had his conviction for damaging a transgender activist’s mobile phone overturned.
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Met Police says it will no longer investigate non-crime hate incidents
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