Feminist teacher wins battle to overturn police ‘hate incident’ after being accused of ‘transphobia’

A feminist teacher has had a ‘hate incident’ reversed against her by police following her social media posts about trans issues.

Cathy Kirby had police officers contact her after trans activists claimed her posts on Twitter were “transphobic.”

Despite not being charged with any criminal offence, Ms Kirby was later told by Norfolk Police that a ‘non-criminal hate incident’ had been registered against her.

Although the incident was quashed, the 57-year-old from Norwich, Norfolk, said she was never told which of her tweets were considered “transphobic.”

Ms Kirby, who regularly posts about the threat to women’s rights from trans ideology, said she believed activists had used the police to indirectly harass her.

Ms Kirby believes the police incident could have followed her post about the Rainbow Pride flag having additional colors to represent transgender people.

She said, “I posted a comment on Twitter calling out the new Pride flag and saying I didn’t really like the added trans colors because I felt the original was fine because it already represented trans people.”

The officers gave her advice, but it wasn’t until later that she learned that the non-crime hate incident was placed on her file after asking Norfolk Police for more information about her case.

The phrase is defined by current College of Policing guidelines as “any non-crime incident perceived by the victim or other person as being motivated by hostility or prejudice.”

Ms Kirby said she feared it would affect background checks for her career by teaching English to school students online, despite not having a criminal record.

She said the reference was only removed from her file last October after a long battle between legal experts and a cybercrime charity.

She said, “These people tried to destroy not only my income and my career, but also my reputation. Norfolk Police went along with that.

“It’s really frightening and quite sinister. Essentially, this small group has targeted me for my beliefs and I feel like the cops sending PCs around to tell me about something I tweeted are harassing me by proxy.

“There are a lot of real crimes they could investigate, not standing on a 58-year-old woman’s doorstep about people being offended by a tweet.”

Ms Kirby, who describes herself online as a ‘wife, mother, feminist, dog lover, nature lover and passionate advocate for children’s rights’, said she was targeted by a ‘very outspoken small group’ for her gender-critical views.

She added: “Over the past five years they have used more than 20 anonymous Twitter accounts to insult and smear me.”

Norfolk police visited her home after citing a Twitter account she believed was behind an anonymous account threatening her with death.

Ms Kirby said she had also been visited on other occasions by officers investigating her claims of social media harassment.

On her blog, she described the claims that she was transphobic as “false and totally laughable.”

She added: ‘I stand up for the rights of women, children and the gay, lesbian and bisexual community. Nothing I’ve said resembles transphobia.

“We live in a democracy built on freedom of expression and my views deserve respect. The rights of others are clearly not important to the group targeting me, they just wanted to upset me in every way possible.

“This was a concerted effort to make me lose my income. I am a teacher and if an NCHI shows up on an enhanced DBS check I would lose my job.”

Ms Kirby said she believed her case raised further questions about the extent to which police are becoming involved in controversial online debates.

Last week, Interior Secretary Suella Braverman unveiled draft guidelines for troops requiring them to prioritize free speech over those taking offense and to stop including online arguments as non-crime hate incidents.

Ms Braverman said: ‘I have been deeply concerned about reports of police being unfairly involved in legal debates in this country.

“We’ve made it clear that officers should always put freedom of expression first when recording so-called non-crime hate incidents.

“The new code ensures that the police prioritize their efforts where it is really needed and focus on tackling serious crimes such as burglary, violent crimes, rape and other sex crimes.”

Norfolk Police and Crime Commissioner Giles Orpen-Smellie also recently said he wanted officers to focus on investigating crimes such as burglary and domestic violence, and not get caught up in police arguments on social media.

He added that he didn’t want Norfolk officers to spend their time “sitting on Facebook looking for rude people.”

Ms Kirby said she had received death threats over her tweets, which related to education issues, including one from an anonymous account calling for her crucifixion, which she reported to police.

She was told that British residents had been visited by officers in response to her complaints, but that a man in the US was outside the jurisdiction of British police.

A spokesman for Norfolk Police said: ‘Over the past five years we have investigated numerous allegations and counter-alleges of online harassment involving four people.

“Following investigation, no further action has been taken in any investigation and all parties involved have been advised.

“If a member of the public reports harassing behavior, we have a duty to investigate and will respond in a proportionate manner.”