Russell Brand's barrister reports himself to bar watchdog after confronting Sunday Times journalist

Russell Brand's barrister, Ian Winter KC, has reported himself to his professional regulator after being accused of a tirade at a journalist shortly after the comedian had been found guilty of rape.

The incident happened on Thursday afternoon outside the courtroom door at Southwark Crown Court in London, with a group of journalists watching. Winter confronted the Sunday Times journalist Rosamund Urwin, whose investigation led to Brand's victims coming forward.

Winter told Urwin he hoped she was pleased with herself. Urwin replied that she was pleased justice had been done, to which Winter responded that it was not, that she had ruined it, and added his congratulations, according to the account of the exchange.

In a statement issued on Friday lunchtime, Winter said he had referred himself to the Bar Standards Board, his professional regulator. Having seen how matters had been characterised in the press, he said his professional duty required him to self-report the allegations so the matter could be subject to proper scrutiny.

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. He was cleared of two further charges of rape and one allegation of attempted indecent assault.

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.

In an interview on Times Radio after the exchange, Ben Taylor, the editor of the Sunday Times, defended Urwin, his newspaper's chief news correspondent. He said he had never seen or heard of a barrister behaving in this way.

Taylor said it was not Urwin who found Brand guilty at Southwark Crown Court; it was a jury of eight men and four women who had listened to the evidence and the defence and returned considered verdicts. By impugning Urwin's integrity, he said, Winter was impugning the integrity of the entire case, the jury, the judge and everyone else involved, which he called reprehensible.

During the trial, Winter had argued that reporting of allegations against Brand by 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 Winter, had also accused the journalists who first exposed Brand as a sexual predator of being criminals, suggesting their reporting in 2023 may have committed the crime of perverting the course of justice. The judge rejected that attempt as well, 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.