Russell Brand's barrister refers himself to regulator after courtroom exchange

Ian Winter KC, the barrister who represented Russell Brand at his criminal trial, has referred himself to the Bar Standards Board, the professional regulator for barristers. In a statement issued on Friday lunchtime, Winter said he had made the referral. A barrister is a lawyer who presents cases in court, and a King's Counsel, or KC, is a senior barrister.

The referral follows an exchange on Thursday afternoon outside the courtroom door at Southwark Crown Court. According to the Guardian, Winter confronted Rosamund Urwin, chief news correspondent of the Sunday Times, and told her: "I hope you are pleased with yourself." Urwin replied: "I'm pleased justice has been done." Winter answered: "Well, it wasn't. You fucked it," and added: "Congratulations." A group of journalists watched the exchange.

The confrontation came after a jury found Brand guilty of rape and three counts of sexual assault at the end of a four-week trial. The jury, made up of eight men and four women, convicted him of raping a 21-year-old fan in 2009 and of sexually assaulting three women in separate incidents between 2004 and 2009. Brand, who is 51, was cleared of two further rape charges and one allegation of attempted indecent assault.

Urwin's reporting is part of the background to the case. The Guardian reported that her investigation led to Brand's victims coming forward. Sunday Times editor Ben Taylor defended Urwin in an interview with Times Radio after the exchange.

Winter's comments about the media came earlier in the proceedings. He argued during the trial that reporting on the allegations against Brand, including by Urwin and others, had "poisoned the well" and made a fair trial impossible. The trial judge, Mr Justice Bennathan, rejected Brand's attempt to block the trial because of negative media coverage. In a pre-trial argument, Winter accused the journalists who first exposed Brand in 2023 of being "criminals" and suggested they may have committed the offence of perverting the course of justice.

On the substance of the case, Brand's defence argued that media reports from 2023 caused women to "reimagine" consensual sexual encounters. Winter told jurors that Brand "had an immense amount of sex" but that "none of it was unlawful," according to the BBC.

Brand is in custody and is due to be sentenced on Monday.