Russell Brand's barrister has referred himself to his professional regulator after an alleged tirade aimed at a journalist shortly after the comedian was found guilty of rape. Ian Winter KC confronted Sunday Times journalist Rosamund Urwin, whose investigation led to Brand's victims coming forward, telling her: "I hope you are pleased with yourself."
Ms Urwin responded: "I'm pleased justice has been done", before Mr Winter said: "Well, it wasn't. You f***** it." "Congratulations," he added, in an incident that took place on Thursday afternoon just outside the courtroom door at Southwark Crown Court, with a group of journalists watching on.
Self-Referral to Regulator
In a statement issued on Friday lunchtime, Mr Winter said he has now referred himself to the Bar Standards Board, his professional regulator. He said: "Having seen the ways matters have been characterised in today's press I consider my professional duty requires me to self-report those allegations to the Bar Standards Board, so the matter can be subject to proper scrutiny. I have made such a report."
The incident at court happened moments after Brand had been found guilty by a jury of rape and three counts of sexual assault, at the conclusion of a four-week trial. Brand had denied all the charges against him and argued through his lawyer that he had been wrongly accused and was the victim of a media conspiracy to bring him down.
Editor Defends Journalist
In an interview on Times Radio following the exchange, Ben Taylor, editor of The Sunday Times, defended Ms Urwin, his newspaper's chief news correspondent. He said: "I found what Mr Winter did quite extraordinary. I have never seen or heard of a barrister behaving in this way.
"There's a really serious point here, which is that it was not Ros who found Russell Brand guilty at Southwark Crown Court. It was a jury of eight men and four women who have sat through this case. They've listened to the evidence, they've listened to the defence, and they have gone away and they've come back with some very considered verdicts."
"By impugning Ros' integrity, what Mr Winter is doing, and he should really be called to account for this, he's impugning the integrity of the entire case. He's impugning the integrity of a jury, a system that we support massively at The Sunday Times, and we have actually campaigned to protect, who have sat there solemnly and done their duty, and the judge who oversaw the case and everybody else involved. I think what he did was reprehensible."
Trial Context and Sentencing
During the trial, Mr Winter had argued that reporting of allegations against Brand by Ms Urwin and others had "poisoned the well" and rendered it impossible for him to have a fair trial. The trial judge, Mr Justice Bennathan, dismissed an attempt by Brand to block his trial from taking place because of negative media coverage.
In a pre-trial argument, Brand, through Mr Winter, had also accused the journalists who first exposed Brand as a sexual predator of being "criminals", suggesting their reporting in 2023 had made a fair trial impossible and venturing that they may have committed the crime of perverting the course of justice. But the judge rejected that attempt to stop the trial, ruling that Brand could simply be tried by people who had not seen the previous media reporting.
Brand, 51, was convicted of raping a 21-year-old fan in 2009, as well as sexually assaulting three women in separate incidents between 2004 and 2009. He is in custody and due to be sentenced on Monday.
