Reduxx has confirmed that a prominent trans activist known for having at least two women arrested for “hate speech” was previously convicted of indecent assault on a 14-year-old boy, and was a registered sex offender.
Stephanie Hayden, formerly known as Anthony Halliday, pleaded guilty in 1999 to sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy he met through the internet.
According to court records and archived news reports reviewed by Reduxx, Hayden was found guilty of abusing the boy on at least two occasions in 1997, meeting with the victim and proceeding to “kiss and touch him” before driving him back to his parent’s house. Hayden accepted two charges of indecent assault in 1999, and was ordered by Judge Gerald Clifton to pay a £600 fine and to register as a sex offender for five years following the verdict.
During court proceedings, Judge Clifton remarked: “I’m told he was willing. Had this been a case of you seducing a boy and indulging in oral sex with him then whether he consented or not, whether in private or not, a short sentence of imprisonment would have been necessary.”
But Hayden’s past criminal conduct, which includes another violent offense, has largely become obfuscated by his vocal trans advocacy. While Hayden previously identified as a gay man, he began transitioning in 2017 and has subsequently become a key proponent of pro-trans policy in the United Kingdom.
Hayden’s experience as a self-styled lawyer has enabled him to utilize the courts to silence those he accuses of “transphobia,” and he has gained a self-confessed reputation for being particularly litigious.
Hayden has initiated legal action against more than two dozen individuals over the years, often in an apparent effort to prevent them from referring to him as a “man,” or quashing speculations regarding his past criminal history. In total, Hayden had filed approximately 40 complaints altogether, and multiple individuals have been arrested for “hate speech” after he complained to police.
In October of 2018, Hayden launched Britain’s first “deadnaming” case in London’s High Court against famed Irish comedy writer Graham Linehan. In the court filing, which accused Linehan of libel, harassment and misuse of private information, Hayden alleged that Linehan had “deadnamed” him by sharing content from a separate X (formerly Twitter) account which included former photos of Hayden, when he was still known as Anthony Halliday, and referenced his criminal history.
Hayden also accused Linehan of libel and cited social media posts in which Linehan referred to him as a “misogynist” and “sex offender.”
In one of the posts, published on September 26 of that year, Linehan wrote: “I don’t respect the pronouns of misogynists, stalkers or harassers.” In another, Linehan posted: “Yes, we must always be nice to con men, sexual predators and misogynists hijacking a noble movement for their own ends.”
Just two months after filing a suit against Linehan, Hayden successfully had a Hertfordshire mother named Kate Scottow arrested at her home in front of her young daughter and infant son. Scottow’s arrest came after Hayden made a series of complaints to police about her social media posts, specifically that she had referred to him by “he/him” pronouns.
Scottow was held in a cell for several hours before being questioned about her comments and her devices were seized and held by police for months.
During proceedings, Hayden said Scottow had “violated” his “dignity as a woman.”
Scottow was initially found guilty of “persistently making use of a public communications network to cause annoyance,” but her conviction was later overturned on appeal.
Another woman who was targeted by Hayden was threatened legally over a post on X she made in which she simply asked whether it was true that Hayden had a past criminal conviction for indecent assault. While Bronwen Dickenson had initially been anonymous on social media, Hayden ascertained her identity and sent her a caution within one week, later filing a criminal complaint against her for “harassment.”
While there have been approximately one dozen individuals directly impacted by Hayden’s legal actions, perhaps his most publicized target is mother-of-five Caroline Farrow, a Catholic journalist who has been involved in various legal and criminal disputes with Hayden for years.
Farrow is currently embroiled in litigation with Hayden for the third time in what has been a bitter and ongoing dispute which began in 2019 with accusations by Hayden that Farrow had “misgendered” him by referring to him as male.
Farrow was served papers at Hayden’s behest on April 29, 2019, ordering her to appear in court on May 2 — reportedly giving her just two working days of notice to obtain legal counsel.
In the weeks leading up to being served, Farrow was stalked and threatened with rape by the author of an anonymous blog called Tombstone Teeth, which bore the tagline: “A blog to highlight the behavior of Caroline Farrow and others.”
Posts published on Tombstone Teeth made repeated references to technical aspects of the law and boasted that “Stephanie [Hayden] isn’t scared to instigate proceedings.”
Two days prior to Hayden’s arrival at her home, the Tombstone Teeth blog released an unhinged series of screenshots from Farrow’s X account accompanied by menacing threats.
“We would advise you to wear you [sic] best knickers on Monday & Tuesday next week because you may well be about to shit yourself. There is no witch-hunt. All the people you have abused have come together and are standing up to you,” the post read.
“Your address is in the fucking public domain you fucking imbecile… You are a fucking horrific mother. Nobody would be stupid enough to try and rape you; you have the sexual qualities of a bucket of slime,” the blog continued.
The same day that Hayden arrived at Farrow’s home, a Tombstone Teeth post gleefully announced, “We are delighted to share with our readers that this afternoon (Monday 29th April), Caroline Farrow had an order served on her from the High Court in London.”
On October 3, 2022, Farrow was arrested in front of her children by Surrey Police for alleged offenses of harassment and malicious communications against Hayden.
Her devices were seized, and she was taken to Guildford Police Station for questioning. Speaking of the ordeal, Farrow told GB News she was arrested for comments that were made during a “Twitter spat about gender issues.”
“One minute I was making dinner for my kids and then next I was having my socks checked for drugs. This took up an entire shift. What an absolute waste of police time,” Farrow said of her arrest.
On April 27, 2023, Surrey Police arrested Farrow again, and applied for a stalking protection order (SPO) against her, in defense of and with the full support of Hayden. She was served on June 5 and ordered to appear in court on June 8, but when she arrived, was told that the police barrister needed additional time to review the case. After this, the SPO was dropped.
Other individuals targeted by Hayden include Dr. Louise Moody, a women’s rights campaigner who Hayden accused of “harassment,” and lawyer Adrian Yalland, who had been offering legal support to some of the women Hayden had filed legal complaints against.
A key component of many of Hayden’s complaints has been the suppression of discussion about his criminal history, which is not isolated to his indecent assault on the 14-year-old boy.
In addition to having previously been on the sex offender registry, in 2000, Hayden pleaded guilty to a violent assault charge after he struck a man on the back of the head with a golf club following a heated exchange over parking.
During proceedings, it was revealed that Hayden had appeared before the courts on five previous occasions for offenses which included disorderly behavior and a number of offenses of dishonesty. Despite his multiple run-ins with the law, Hayden received only 100 hours’ community service as punishment.
In addition to his repeated legal complaints against those critical of gender ideology, Hayden has raised concern amongst some users on social media due to a past post on notorious pedophile Jimmy Savile.
In 2012, just after the scandal surrounding Savile shook the United Kingdom, Hayden posted to X: “So what if Jimmy Savile was interviewed by police? Was not charged or convicted of anything. Due process does not die with suspect!”
But Savile was not the only child predator Hayden took to social media to post about. He also took aim at those labeling Jeremy Forrest a “pedophile.” Forrest was a British teacher who was convicted of child abduction and five counts of sexual activity with a child after bringing a 15-year-old pupil to France for abuse.
“Jeremy Forrest is an idiot and will face sentence for his actions. Pedophile? EU ages of consent, Spain 13, France 15, Germany 14, etc…” Hayden posted in June of 2016.
Speaking with Reduxx, Irish comedian Graham Linehan expressed his perspective on Hayden’s motivations for his continuous and persistent litigation.
“Stephanie Hayden has been using his trans identity as a weapon against his accusers for years and he’s been using it to tamp down any scrutiny that starts coming his way. And now, of course, we hear this, he has this episode in his past, and it’s becoming clearer why he’s wanted to lay low,” Linehan said.
“He’s doing everything in his power to cover up his history and, and these taboos of ‘dead-naming’ and ‘misgendering’ – all they do is protect men with questionable pasts.”
On August 16, Linehan was interviewed for Uncensored on Talk TV by journalist Rosanna Lockwood, who, during the course of the conversation, took a strongly accusatory tone with him at the mention of child sexual abuse.
Lockwood asserted that Linehan had implied that transgenderism was a cover for “nonces,” to which the acclaimed comedy writer remarked that the media protects child abusers.
Lockwood then turned to Peter Tatchell for comment, an LGBT activist who previously published a chapter in a book edited by the former vice-chairman of the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) – an organization which lobbied for the abolition of the age of consent during the 1970s.
During the discussion, Linehan mentioned Hayden’s criminal history briefly, and, within hours, Hayden had posted to social media that he had “been in direct contact with” producers at Talk TV and suggested he would be pursuing legal action.
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