By Cindy Harper – Reclaim The Net
A retired police superintendent in the UK says she was targeted by her former force after using the name “Fred” in reference to transgender activist Freda Wallace in several social media posts, a move that triggered a police visit to her home and a potential criminal investigation.
Cathy Larkman, who served for over three decades with South Wales Police, said the visit came after she made remarks online about Wallace, including posts on platform X that read, “Fred blocked me” and “Fred, put that drink down.”
The posts were part of an ongoing public conversation around strip-searching policies, where Larkman voiced opposition to allowing transgender women to conduct searches on female detainees.
Although Larkman wasn’t home when officers came to her door, she later learned the visit was related to allegations of “malicious communications.”
The complaint was her use of Wallace’s former name, a practice often referred to as “dead-naming” by gender activists.
A social media account titled SEEN Police Official Open Public Network confirmed a complaint had been filed.
According to The Telegraph, the individual believed to have made the report is Lynsay Watson, a transgender former police officer known for encouraging law enforcement to criminally pursue people who challenge gender ideology. Watson was dismissed from Leicestershire Police in 2023 for gross misconduct.
Larkman’s situation follows a similar incident involving Father Ted writer Graham Linehan, who was arrested by armed officers at Heathrow Airport days earlier over a series of posts.
Raising concerns about what she describes as growing ideological pressure within the policing system, Larkman accused the institution of serving activist agendas instead of the public interest. “The police service keeps demonstrating that it is ideologically captured from the top down. It is failing the public,” she said.
Britain’s free speech environment is deteriorating rapidly under the weight of expansive censorship laws, regulatory overreach, and state-sanctioned content control.
Britain’s free speech climate is also facing increasing scrutiny as arrests and police investigations tied to online expression become more frequent. Individuals have been detained or questioned by police for social media posts, often involving gender identity, political commentary, or so-called “hate speech.” The expansion of speech-related offenses under laws like the Online Safety Act has created a legal environment where citizens risk criminal investigation for expressing views that challenge prevailing ideologies.