Police to take 'no further action' against Caroline Farrow over 'misgendering' complaint

Caroline Farrow says she was reported to police after allegedly misgendering the daughter of a trans rights campaigner(Photo: ITV)

No further action will be taken by police against Caroline Farrow, the Catholic journalist who faced being investigated after she was accused of "misgendering" the daughter of a trans rights activist.

Mrs Farrow, a writer for the Catholic Herald and a mother-of-five, revealed earlier this week that she had been asked in for interview by Surrey Police following a complaint by Susie Green, who chairs trans support charity Mermaids and is the mother of Jackie Green, who was born male. 

Mrs Farrow, who does not believe people can change sex, allegedly used the wrong pronoun to describe Mrs Green's daughter in Twitter posts after the pair appeared together on Good Morning Britain to debate transgender issues. 

Mrs Green said Mrs Farrow's posts about her daughter were "distressing" and "spiteful" but she later withdrew her police complaint. 

"She constantly refers to my daughter as a boy but that's not... the key issues in here weren't those," she told the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme.

"It was the really damaging things that she said about me and my actions that made me decide that this was an appropriate course of action."

Mrs Farrow denied any wrongdoing. 

"I have done nothing wrong, nothing illegal and will happily do jail time for my right to say that people cannot change sex," she said.

Surrey Police said they followed up the complaint because they had a "duty of care to fully investigate all allegations which are reported to us". 

It confirmed that it would be taking no further action as the complaint had now been withdrawn. 

"The original allegation has subsequently been withdrawn and no further action will be taken in relation to this matter," it said in a statement.