Sarah Phillimore

Sarah Phillimore

In June 2020, an anonymous Twitter account boasted (see below) that Sarah now had a “record for life” as the result of allegedly hateful tweets. Sarah contacted her local force, Wiltshire Police, who confirmed that twelve pages of tweets had been recorded as transphobic and religiously aggravated “non-crime hate incidents”.

None of these tweets could rationally be described as hateful. They include: denying that transwomen are biological women, referring to male sex offenders housed in the female prison estate as “men”, and discussing her dog’s liking for cheese.


In Sarah’s words…

“The police need access to the right information to keep us all safe, but the information they are gathering for ‘hate crime’ purposes is unlikely to be of much, if any, use to them. It could even be actively harmful, since it allows recording of allegations that may have no rational basis or even be false and malicious.

“As co-founder of Fair Cop and a public voice on sex and gender, I’m not surprised that I was reported. It couldn’t be easier — or more consequence-free — to report someone for perceived hatred. That’s why I’m raising money to challenge the College of Policing’s hate crime guidance. My lawyers will argue this is unlawful, running contrary to the Data Protection Act 2018, the GDPR and Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which define political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs as sensitive and personal data.”

You can contribute to Sarah’s crowdfunder here.

Have you been contacted by the police for expressing gender-critical views? Get in touch with us here.


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