A feminist teacher has overturned a ‘hate incident’ recorded 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 a ‘non-crime hate incident’ had been recorded against her.
Though the incident was overturned, 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 womens’ rights posed by trans ideology, said she believed activists had used police to indirectly harass her.
Ms Kirby believes the police incident could have followed her post about the rainbow pride flag having extra colours added to represent trans people.
She said: ‘I made a comment on Twitter calling out the new Pride flag, saying that I didn’t particularly like the trans colours being added because I felt the original was fine as it already represented trans people.’
The officers gave her words of advice, but it was only later she discovered that the non-crime hate incident had been placed on her record after she asked Norfolk Police for more information about her case.
The phrase is defined by the College of Policing’s current guidance as ‘any non-crime incident which is perceived, by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by a hostility or prejudice’.
Ms Kirby said she feared it would impact background checks for her career teaching English to school pupils online, despite it not being a criminal record.
She said the reference was only removed from her record last October after a long battle involving legal experts and a cybercrime charity.
She said: ‘These people tried to destroy not only my income and my career but my reputation. Norfolk police went along with it.
‘It’s really frightening and quite sinister. Basically this small group has been targeting me for my beliefs and I feel police sending around PCs to tell me off for something I’ve tweeted is harassing me by proxy.
‘There are lots of real crimes they could be investigating, not calling on the doorstep of a 58-year-old woman 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 had been targeted by a ‘very outspoken small group’ due to her gender critical views.
She added: ‘Over the last five years they have used upwards of 20 anonymous Twitter accounts to slur and smear me.’
Norfolk Police visited her home after she named a Twitter account which she believed was behind an anonymous account making death threats against her.
Ms Kirby said that she had also been visited on further occasions by officers investigating her claims that she had been harassed on social media.
Writing on her blog, she described the claims that she was transphobic as ‘untrue and totally laughable’.
She added: ‘I stand up for the rights of women, children and the gay, lesbian and bisexual community. Nothing I have said resembles transphobia.
Read More: Feminist teacher, 57, wins battle to overturn police ‘hate incident’
