Russell Brand’s lawyer has been reported to the barristers’ watchdog over claims he accosted a female journalist after his client was found guilty of rape, the Daily Telegraph has reported.
Formal complaints are understood to have been lodged with the Bar Standards Board after Ian Winter KC, Brand’s barrister, allegedly confronted Rosamund Urwin outside the courtroom on Thursday local time, telling her: “I hope you are pleased with yourself.”
Last week, Brand, 51, was found guilty on one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault against four women after a three-week trial at Southwark Crown Court. He is being investigated for at least two more sexual assaults.
Many of the complainants came forward with their allegations against the comedian after a 2023 investigation by Channel 4 and the Sunday Times. Winter argued during the trial that these reports had “poisoned the well of justice” by not allowing Brand to have a fair hearing.
After the verdict was delivered and Brand was remanded into custody, Winter appeared to snap at Urwin, one of the journalists who worked on the Sunday Times story, as they were leaving the courtroom.
In front of several other journalists, he allegedly told Urwin: “I hope you are pleased with yourself.”
Urwin responded: “I’m pleased justice has been done”, before Winter allegedly said: “Well, it wasn’t. You f***ed it. Congratulations.”
Winter released a statement saying that he had also reported himself to the watchdog.
The barrister repeatedly referred to Urwin throughout the trial, with one of the thrusts of his case being that her and her colleagues’ reporting had “corrupted” the trial. In their evidence, many of the women spoke about finally feeling able to report their allegations to the police after seeing the news reports.
Winter speculated in one pre-trial submission about “what Ms Urwin did in order to persuade the complainants to participate”, in an attempt to get the entire case thrown out.
Appearing on Times Radio after Winter’s outburst, Ben Taylor, editor of the Sunday Times, defended Urwin, saying: “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.”
While it is understood that complaints have been made to the Bar Standards Board, the watchdog must rigorously assess any complaint before deciding whether to launch a formal investigation. An investigation then determines whether a case is closed with no action, or whether it should be resolved with minor sanctions or progressed to a disciplinary tribunal.
A spokesman from the Bar Standards Board said: “The Bar Standards Board does not comment as to whether or not it has received any information about potential misconduct by a barrister regardless of how any information comes to our attention.
“Such matters are dealt with in accordance with the procedures set out in detail on our website. These procedures are usually conducted confidentially unless they result in a listing for a disciplinary tribunal hearing.”
Winter 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.”
Winter was approached for comment. It is understood Urwin did not file the complaint herself.
Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, was questioned over Winter’s approach in the trial, saying that some of what he had heard was “getting very close to victim blaming”.
It was put to Sir Mark on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that Winter told jurors that “none of the complainants had, in his words, resisted or screamed or even tried to leave”.
Asked whether he would support Claire Waxman, the Victims’ Commissioner, who wants a legal duty in the Courts and Tribunals Bill that would require judges to issue directions to juries on rape myths and misconceptions in every rape trial, Sir Mark said: “I strongly support Claire. I think what I’ve heard reported heads towards, it’s getting very close to victim blaming, which is something we’ve thought very hard about in policing and make sure we don’t do.
“People fall into myths about [how] a rape victim must behave in a certain way, must react in a certain way. The evidence is really clear. Some people will fight. Some people will freeze. Some people will tell people straight away. Some people bottle it up for years. There isn’t one way of reacting.”
Winter was criticised after the trial for the way in which he cross-examined the complainants and referred to them in his closing speech. He made several attempts to suggest that the women’s credibility was undermined by the fact they had not come forward during the MeToo movement in 2017, “when every woman in the world was examining whether they’d been sexually assaulted by a famous person”.
He also questioned why they had not directly told Brand that they had been raped in the moments after, and accused one of trying to portray herself as a “naive and wilting flower”.
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