Mumsnet reveals name of user in transgender row

Stephanie Hayden said she wanted the user's details to allow her to pursue legal action

Mumsnet has revealed the identity of a user who allegedly abused a transgender lawyer on its forum.

It comes after Stephanie Hayden won a High Court order stating the website must provide the personal details of a user named 'ALittleHelp18'.

Ms Hayden called comments made on the site defamatory and said obtaining the user's details would allow legal action to be taken.

Mumsnet said it has "sent Ms Hayden the user's personal details".

The court order stated Mumsnet had until 16:00 GMT on Thursday to "provide the claimant the identification details of the user of the Mumsnet website known as "ALittleHelp18" ".

The details had to include the user's full legal name, date of birth, address and email.

The High Court issued an order on Monday

Mumsnet's founder, Justine Roberts, said: 'We told the author of the complained-about post that we would be open to contesting the court order if they wanted us to, but we did not hear back from them within the necessary time frame.

"We sent to Ms Hayden the personal details supplied privately to us by the user - which were not the same as the details shared publicly by the user in a subsequent post on Mumsnet - before the court order's deadline."

Ms Hayden said she first contacted Mumsnet in November about the comments which she said made claims of criminality.

The 45-year-old, who lives in London but is originally from Liverpool, issued a notice of complaint but said Mumsnet initially refused to take the remarks down.

Under the Defamation Act, a user who wants a post to remain visible on a user-generated content site following a complaint must provide the website operator with a set of personal details.

The law requires the operator to make a judgement about whether those details are "obviously false".

'Abuse and trolling'

Ms Roberts said those details were provided and a judgement taken that they were genuine.

However, Ms Hayden said if it materialised that the user's information was fake, she would look at taking defamation action against Mumsnet.

She said: "It is toxic to allow such abuse and trolling to happen.

"I've had months of this abuse remaining online and watching how it has flourished.

"Mumsnet should not allow these allegations to be thrown about like bits of candy and should look at better moderation."

In 2018 Ms Hayden reported Father Ted creator Graham Linehan to West Yorkshire Police for transphobic harassment.

He was given a verbal warning following an online row between the two where Mr Linehan referred to her as a "he" and tweeted the names she used before transitioning.