Police may have recorded a ‘misgendering’ complaint made against JK Rowling by trans broadcaster India Willoughby as a ‘hate incident’ in a breach of free speech rules, gender-critical campaigners have warned.
Willoughby, 58, said that Northumbria Police had logged an official ‘non-crime hate incident’ (NCHI) of the online spat where the transgender woman was called a male online by the Harry Potter author.
But the force last week said that Rowling would not face action after it was ruled the complaint ‘did not meet the criminal threshold’.
Willoughby, a newsreader and Loose Women presenter, contacted the police last Monday over an online post in which the Harry Potter author referred to her as a man.
A Northumbria Police spokesman said last week: ‘While we recognise the upset this may have caused, the post was reviewed and did not meet the criminal threshold.’
Ms Willoughby has claimed that the force logged a NCHI against Rowling and used the force’s response to assert her view that the author is transphobic, the Telegraph reports.
Police may have recorded a ‘misgendering’ complaint made against JK Rowling (pictured) by trans broadcaster India Willoughby as a ‘hate incident’ in a breach of free speech rules, gender-critical campaigners have warned.
Willoughby (pictured) said that Northumbria Police had logged an official ‘non-crime hate incident’ (NCHI) of the online spat where the transgender woman was called a male online by the Harry Potter author
Willoughby previously claimed Ms Rowling ‘definitely committed a crime’.
But the force has been accused of breaking rules on NCHIs, which were published last year in a bid to protect freedom of speech and ensure that an incident was not logged as hate only because someone was offended.
The new rules were introduced after retired police officer Harry Miller won a legal battle after an NCHI was recorded after he said online that trans women were not women.
This guidance says that the public are allowed to ‘express personally held views in a lawful manner’ and that officers have to consider protections about freedom of speech when deciding if an NCHI should be logged.
Sex Matters director Maya Forstater, who won a 2023 legal case which said that ‘gender-critical’ beliefs are protected in law, told the Telegraph said the new guidance shows that ‘a non-crime hate incident should not be recorded for saying that sex matters’.
She said that Rowling’s comments did not meet the bar for a recording of a NCHI.
Forstater said that Northumbria Police needs to ‘defend its decision to record a woman speaking in factual terms about a man who has persistently hounded her as a “hate incident”.’
The incident met the threshold to be logged as an NCHI, Willoughby claimed, saying that Rowling’s ‘horrendous comments… are putting the trans community in danger’.
The new guidance states that NCHIs should only be recorded when motivated by ‘intentional hostility or prejudice’ and the event presents a ‘real risk of significant harm to individuals or groups’.
Forces are also required to ‘utilise judgement and common sense’ when choosing whether or not to log incidents and should make sure that it does ‘not conflict with freedom of expression protections’.
Speaking to Byline TV, Willoughby previously said: ‘JK Rowling has definitely committed a crime.
‘I’m legally a woman. She knows I’m a woman and she calls me a man. It’s a protected characteristic.
‘And that is a breach of both the Equality Act and the Gender Recognition Act. She’s tweeted that out to 14 million followers.’
She said on X/Twitter last Wednesday: ‘Some time ago, lawyers advised me that not only did I have a clearly winnable case against India Willoughby for defamation, but that India’s obsessive targeting of me over the past few years may meet the legal threshold for harassment.
‘I ignored this advice because I couldn’t be bothered giving India the publicity he so clearly craves.
‘Nevertheless, we must all do our bit to combat hate, so India will be glad to know I’ve taken note of his homophobia, racism and humane stance on immigration.
‘Nor have I forgotten India’s shocking transphobia.
‘It appears to have slipped what passes for India’s mind that he’s previously called a fellow trans woman a man on this very site.’
Broadcaster India, 58, accused JK Rowling of ‘misgendering’ in several social media posts
Rowling went on to say that Willoughby appeared to have forgotten the Forstater ruling, which ‘established that gender critical views can be protected in law’.
Northumbria Police told the Telegraph that it did not have anything to add to its statements made last week, where it acknowledged that Willoughby may be ‘upset’ but confirmed that the criminal threshold was not met.
The force refused to confirm to the paper if Willoughby’s claims that a NCHI was recorded were true and had not further comment when questioned over if it broke rules on logging those incidents.