Father Ted creator Graham Linehan calls for criminal probe into trans charities Mermaids and Stonewall in wake of Cass report as he tells of six-year 'nightmare' after losing career, friends and marriage for views on gender transition of children

• Irish writer Linehan, 55, also demanded an investigation into the BBC
• Supporters say his critics should ‘uncancel’ him following the Cass report

Father Ted’s co-creator Graham Linehan has demanded criminal investigations into two pro-trans charities Mermaids and Stonewall after a major review into NHS transgender treatment.

The writer and campaigner said the organisations were among those who should be ‘held accountable’ for encouraging what he called ‘the myth of the trans child’.

Linehan, 55, also accused the BBC of ‘pushing this ideology’ on young children with CBBC programmes covering teenagers’ gender transition treatment.

And the vocal critic of trans ideology and activism told of losing his career, friends and marriage during a six-year ‘nightmare’ because of his views he says are in support of children and women’s rights.

He was speaking after the Cass Review’s lengthy and long-awaited report prompted NHS England, which had already stopped puberty blockers being given to under-16s, to announce a review into the use of hormones.

Graham Linehan has called for criminal investigations into Mermaids UK and Stonewall

He said the sudden financial insecurity caused by his trans views caused the collapse of his marriage of 16 years to Helen Serafinowicz, co-creator of the BBC comedy Motherland

Linehan co-created Channel 4 sitcom Father Ted starring, left to right, Ardal O’Hanlon, Pauline McLynn, Frank Kelly and Dermot Morgan

Linehan earlier said he was ‘proud as punch’ and felt vindicated by the Cass Review’s conclusion that medical treatment in children’s gender care had been based on weak evidence.

Supporters on X, formerly Twitter, have been sharing the hashtag ‘GlinnerWasRight’ and asking whether everyone who had ‘cancelled’ him would go back on their words.

He has called for follow-up action following yesterday’s report, including against transgender support group Mermaids UK and LGBTQ+ rights organisation Stonewall.

Linehan told GB News: ‘I think we have to be a little bit careful and a little bit judicious in how we find the guilty and what we do about them – there are some people who are more guilty than others.

‘Mermaids, I think, should be held accountable – very much so. I think they should be investigated, I think there should be a criminal investigation into Mermaids.

‘I think there should be a criminal investigation into Stonewall.’

Transgender support group Mermaids UK has been accused of encouraging youngsters to transition because they do not conform to gender stereotypes.

The charity has also campaigned for greater access to puberty blockers, which the Cass Review warned ‘may change the trajectory of psychosexual and gender identity development’ without altering a patient’s body dissatisfaction or gender dysphoria.

Linehan also turned on the BBC, highlighting a CBBC programme called My Life: I Am Leo, following a 13-year-old who was born as a girl but lives as a boy and was one of the first children in Britain to be prescribed hormone blockers.

Linehan is pictured here at a ‘Let WomenSpeak’ rally in Dublin’s Merrion Square last September

Retired consultant paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass reveals the Cass Review’s final report this week

Linehan last night called for people pushing what he called ‘the myth of the trans child’ to be ‘held accountable’ as he also criticised the BBC

READ MORE ‘Why did it take so long?’: Parents, campaigners and former child patients hail bombshell report that dismantles NHS’s transgender treatment model – but claim ‘we’ve known for years this is a population of vulnerable young people’

Linehan said: ‘I think there should be an inquiry into the BBC – BBC shows like I Am Leo, shows like that we push this ideology on an audience of children. I think they need to be held accountable.

‘It’s not just doctors who need to be investigated, it’s the whole apparatus that created this myth of the trans child.

‘We now know thanks to Cass – although many of us knew it already, we didn’t need Cass to know this – it’s an absolute lie that was designed to confuse and manipulate people and shame them into thinking they were attacking a vulnerable section of society when in fact they were trying to help a vulnerable section of society.’

‘I think there should be an inquiry into the BBC – BBC shows like I Am Leo, shows like that we push this ideology on an audience of children. I think they need to be held accountable.

‘It’s not just doctors who need to be investigated, it’s the whole apparatus that created this myth of the trans child.

‘We now know thanks to Cass – although many of us knew it already, we didn’t need Cass to know this – it’s an absolute lie that was designed to confuse and manipulate people and shame them into thinking they were attacking a vulnerable section of society when in fact they were trying to help a vulnerable section of society.’

MailOnline has contacted Mermaids, Stonewall and the BBC for responses.

The corporation told GB News: ‘CBBC is proud to reflect all areas of children’s lives including age-appropriate representation of the different issues they may faces, whilst helping them develop empathy and kindness towards each other as they grow up.’

Linehan’s fans have claimed the comedian had been vindicated by the Cass Review and have been calling for those who ‘cancelled’ him to backtrack.

Irish writer Graham Linehan, 55, says he and fellow campaigners have been ‘trying to help a vulnerable section of society’

READ MORE: JK Rowling says she WON’T forgive Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson for their stance in the trans debate – and says they should apologise to ‘traumatised detransitioners and vulnerable women’ not her 

Supporters of Linehan’s stance have called on X, formerly Twitter, for those who have criticised or ‘cancelled’ him to apologise

Comedy writer Josh Howie posted on X: ‘The hate and ridicule directed at Graham by colleagues in the comedy industry these last years has disgusted me.

‘He was right and he was brave and he was utterly vilified for it. Let’s see if even one of those brave ‘truth tellers’ now apologises.’

Irish writer Linehan belongs to a controversial school of thought that believes those who support the gender transition of youngsters are child abusers.

He previously tweeted in January last year: ‘Telling children they have the wrong bodies is child abuse.’

Linehan rose to fame in 1995 for creating, alongside writing partner Arthur Matthews, the Channel 4 sitcom Father Ted which ran until 1998.

He then went on to pen Black Books and The IT Crowd but in recent years has devoted himself to opposing transgender activists, which led to a Twitter ban in 2020 – since reversed – and a show at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe being shut down.

In 2021 he revealed that sudden financial insecurity caused by his trans views caused the collapse of his marriage of 16 years to Helen Serafinowicz, co-creator of the BBC comedy Motherland.

Linehan has now said: ‘From the moment I started talking about this issue, I had friends and even family members distance themselves from me.’

‘I got threats. I got nasty emails, nasty direct messages, some of them from people I had worked with for years – everyone telling me to stop talking and shut up.

Graham Linehan at a Conservative Party Conference meeting in Manchester last October

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about the sweeping 400-page Cass report, including why it was set-up four years ago and what has happened since 

Graham Linehan has been thanking people for support following the Cass Review

‘I had police visit me twice on behalf of trans activists. I lost my family and marriage,

‘I’m still close to my children but I lost my marriage because I kept losing jobs and opportunities, it was unrelenting pressure.’

He had been working again with Matthews and Hat Trick Productions on a stage musical adaptation of Father Ted, called Pope Ted, which has since fallen through.

Linehan told GB News last night: ‘I genuinely thought my Father Ted colleagues would stand up for me and see what is happening to children and realise I was right to be taking the stand I was taking.

‘But instead they told me to remove my name from the musical and said they would not make it if I didn’t.

‘They offered me £200,000. I refused because I thought the issue was too important – I didn’t want Father Ted to be built on the ruined bodies of children.

‘It has just been a nightmare for the last six years. I haven’t written comedy for six years. It has been a long fight. I’m extremely tired.’

Hat Trick Productions’ managing director Jimmy Mulville has previously said the show should have been a ‘surefire hit’ in the West End but it was decided having Linehan involved would make it impossible to stage.

He told the Times in March last year: ‘I said, “We’re not getting at you. We’re trying to save the work and the only way we save the work now is by disassociating it from you, tragic as that is”.

He had been working on a stage musical version of Father Ted, called Pope Ted – Ardal O’Hanlon (left) and the late Dermot Morgan are seen here in the TV original

Linehan’s other sitcoms include The IT Crowd starring, from left to right, Chris O’Dowd, Richard Ayoade and Katherine Parkinson

READ MORE: GRAHAM LINEHAN: ‘I lost my career, my wife, friends and reputation when I was engulfed by a tsunami of trans rights madness’

‘I know writers really well, it’s hard for writers to do that – and I said it would take an enormous amount of personal courage and humility, but the only way that we go forward is to make a statement.

‘We had statements prepared where we said, we believe in Graham’s right to speak his mind and that he’s sincere in his beliefs.’

Neil Hannon, who penned Father Ted’s theme tune and was writing the music for the stage show, told the Telegraph in January 2022: ‘It was fun working on it, but it wasn’t proving easy. It’s been difficult to watch what’s happened.

‘I believe in free speech, but I also very much believe in people’s perfect right to remain completely silent on issues that they don’t feel they can speak on. And that’s all I want to say about it.’

Retired publication Dr Hilary Cass, who wrote the report published yesterday, made 32 recommendations including a ‘follow-through’ service for 17 to 25-year-olds.

She said this should prevent this ‘vulnerable’ group going straight into adult clinics, as she warned teenagers were ‘falling off a cliff edge’ in their care when reaching 17.

Her report concluded that gender care is currently an area of ‘remarkably weak evidence’ and young people have been caught up in a ‘stormy social discourse’.

NHS England has now written to local NHS leaders to ask that they pause first appointment offers at adult gender clinics to young people before their 18th birthday, as it also intends to carry out a major review of these services.

The report, first commissioned in 2020, called for gender services to operate ‘to the same standards’ as other health services for children.

Graham Linehan performs his Edinburgh Fringe Festival show outside the Scottish Parliament last August after having a planned performance at another venue cancelled

Neil Hannon, formerly of the Divine Comedy, had been writing the music for the proposed Pope Ted show but has said it ‘wasn’t proving easy’

It also urged that young people who have been referred be offered ‘a holistic assessment’, including screening for neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism, and a mental health assessment.

Dr Cass said that ‘for the majority of young people, a medical pathway may not be the best way’ to address their needs.

The Children’s Society has called for the report to ‘mark a watershed moment’ in fostering an environment ‘which places the wellbeing and safety of all children at its heart’.

The Royal College of Psychiatrists said all gender-questioning children must get ‘timely access to services that are holistic and respond to their individual needs’.

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