Gender-critical activist faced 'Kafkaesque' hate crime investigation over tweet

The police would not tell her which tweet she was being investigated for, only that it was a post “targeting” a member of the transgender community.

The officer said they could not disclose any more information because the “victim” was susceptible to further comments.

Forstater was warned that should she decline to attend the interview, she would be marked as “wanted” in the police system and eventually arrested.

She attended the interview at Charing Cross Police Station where it was revealed the tweet in question was concerning transgender GP Dr Kamilla Kamaruddin who she claimed “enjoys intimately examining female patients without their consent.”

The head of Sex Matters described the ordeal in her UnHerd article in June 2024 where she wrote: “Did I mean to target a member of the transgender community, the police asked me.

"Did I understand that my tweet could be perceived as transphobic? Did I have any remorse? ‘Do you have any evidence that Dr Kamarudding examines her patient without consent?’ the officer demanded.”

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Forstater said she did have evidence, which lay within the tweet itself which she said had linked to a blog post she wrote in 2020.

In the blog post she lay out proof from different platforms of Dr Kamaruddin making statements she said were “boasts of intimately examining female patients while not being clear and honest about his being male.”

One such statement from a piece Kamilla Kamaruddin wrote for the British Journal of General Practice read: “After my transition, they even allowed me to perform more intimate examinations that they did not let me to do when I was a male GP.”

Maya Forstater defended her right to speak freely and said she expresses her views because they are important to her and they contribute to an ongoing political debate.

She added: “It may well be that persons who have seen my tweets are offended or upset, or would prefer that I did not utter them.

"There is no right not to be offended in a democratic society, nor to use the powers of the state to destroy other people’s rights in pursuit of your own political goals."

“Nothing that I have tweeted comes anywhere close to meeting the criteria of being so obviously indecent, grossly offensive, threatening or factually false that it called for an investigation into my intentions in writing it.”

The Crown Prosecution Service is now considering whether Forstater should be charged with malicious communication, which could land her up to two years in prison.

Allison Pearson is a journalist also under investigation for allegedly inciting racial hatred in a tweet she made a year ago. Essex Police approached her on Remembrance Sunday to tell her the news.

Police have refused to tell Pearson which post is being investigated. She described the incident as “Kafkaesque.”

Referring to Pearson, Forstater said: “When I read the article describing her experience as Kafkaesque, it is exactly what my experience was.”

She added: “It has been very stressful and intimidating. It has felt like I have been questioned by a political body, not by the police supposed to be treating people without fear or favour. So it was terrifying.”

A Met Police spokesman said: "An allegation of malicious communication was reported to police in June 2023 relating to post on social media. A number of enquiries have been carried out by officers and these enquiries are ongoing. This has included liaising with the CPS."

"While it is right that we carry out a full investigation, we do recognise the length of time this has taken so far and the impact it will undoubtedly have had on all parties."