Ian Winter KC turned on Sunday Times journalist Rosamund Urwin, whose investigation helped bring Brand’s victims forward, confronting her with the extraordinary words: “I hope you are pleased with yourself.”
asserted
you → turn → yourself
But Ms Urwin refused to back down, firing back: “I’m pleased justice has been done.”
asserted
justice → refuse → ?
Winter then snapped: “Well, it wasn’t.
asserted
it → snap → ?
You f***** it.”
asserted
You → f → it
“Congratulations,” he added.
asserted
he → add → ?
The astonishing exchange came after Brand’s legal team sought to blame media coverage for the case against him, with Winter arguing during the trial that reporting by Ms Urwin and others had “poisoned the well” and made it impossible for his client to receive a fair trial.
But the attempt to derail proceedings was rejected by trial judge Mr Justice Bennathan, who dismissed Brand’s bid to prevent the trial from going ahead because of negative media coverage.
asserted
who → come → coverage
And it can now be revealed that Brand attempted to smear journalists as “criminals” while claiming women who accused him of abuse were “fictional” in a desperate bid to avoid facing trial.
asserted
who → reveal → trial
The 51-year-old comedian-turned-conspiracy theorist claimed he had been “destroyed” by a “trial by media” after investigations by The Times, The Sunday Times and a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary exposed allegations against him as a sexual predator in 2023.
asserted
investigations → turn → 2023
A number of women came forward to police after the media reports, accusing Brand of rape, sexual assault, coercive behaviour and emotional abuse.
asserted
number → come → rape
Prior to his trial, Brand tried to persuade a judge that he had been on the receiving end of a character assassination and therefore could not have a fair trial.
uncertain
he → try → trial
The stand-up comedian and TV and radio host claimed he had suffered more prejudice than the likes of serial killer Rose West.
asserted
he → stand → West
Mr Winter asked Mr Justice Bennathan to throw out rape and sexual assault charges.
asserted
Winter → ask → charges
But the attack on award-winning journalists failed when the judge ruled that the jury could be made up of people who had not seen the 2023 media reporting.
uncertain
who → win → reporting
In a legal argument that can now be reported for the first time, Brand tried to claim that TV and newspaper journalists had deliberately plotted to get him prosecuted and, by publishing the findings of their investigation, had perverted the course of justice.
uncertain
him → report → justice
“The conduct of Channel 4, Hardcash Productions – the makers of the documentary – and the Sunday Times newspaper in publishing the anonymous allegations against the defendant was, and remains, unlawful and criminal,” said Mr Winter.
asserted
Winter → publish → defendant
“It amounted to, and continues to do so, a contempt of court and to a perversion of the course of justice.”
asserted
It → amount → justice
During two days of pre-trial hearings in September, Mr Winter called the Dispatches documentary, Russell Brand: In Plain Sight, a “work of fiction” filled with “false allegations”, highlighting that the anonymised women who had given their stories had been depicted on screen by actors.
The allegations in the documentary included rape, sexual harassment on the set of Big Brother, sexually charged comments while working for the BBC, and details of his lewd behaviour in the Noughties, including telling audiences at his stand-up shows “all sex should be a bit frightening”.
asserted
sex → call → shows
Mr Winter said televised claims against Brand had been made by the “tear-stained cheeks of professional actors”, instead of the women who were accusing him.
uncertain
who → say → him
He told the court: “We don’t even know if these people exist.”
asserted
people → tell → court
Rounding on the reporters, Mr Winter said: “It is not the job of journalists to take the law into their own hands.”
asserted
It → round → hands
The documentary, which included details of Brand’s Sachsgate scandal, evidence from his personal assistant about his behaviour towards women, and revelations about his sex addiction, “drives the observer to the conclusion” that Brand “is a rapist and a sexual assaulter and a serial abuser of women”, said the barrister.
asserted
barrister → include → women
“It is thus much worse than merely being accused of having committed a specified crime, it proves the defendant to be a person who commits those crimes all the time and has done so for very, very many years.
asserted
who → accuse → years
“What possible prospect is there of a juror thinking that when an established multiple rapist gives evidence, that he did not commit a particular identified rape that he is telling the truth?”
asserted
he → think → truth
He added: “It destroys him as a person.
asserted
It → add → person
It destroys him as a credible witness.
asserted
It → destroy → witness
It destroys any hint of sympathy that a jury might otherwise have had for him.”
uncertain
jury → destroy → him
Mr Winter said the documentary was still online and available to download in the weeks before the trial, and suggested the Attorney General should have intervened to get it taken down.
uncertain
it → say → trial
He said: “We simply don’t understand how that is being allowed by the authorities.
“It is a crime currently being committed by these publishers.”
asserted
It → say → publishers
The court was told that Brand had struggled to persuade friends and former colleagues to give evidence for him, because of a “global character assassination by the media”.
asserted
Brand → tell → media
Prosecutors fought against the charges being thrown out, and the judge rejected the arguments of Brand’s lawyers, saying it was “unpersuasive” to claim that journalists had committed a crime.
uncertain
journalists → fight → crime
He ruled: “There is a history, both modern and ancient, of the media running what they claim are exposes of misconduct.”
uncertain
they → rule → misconduct
He highlighted media coverage of alleged unlawful donations to Reform UK this year, as well as allegations in Private Eye magazine in the 1960s about the Kray twins, and said: “Sometimes those claimed revelations lead to convictions, sometimes they do not.
asserted
they → highlight → convictions
It has never been suggested that that type of publication is unlawful.”
uncertain
type → suggest → publication
The judge concluded the jury could be selected from members of the public who had not read the Times and Sunday Times reporting or seen the Dispatches programme.
uncertain
who → conclude → programme
He also suggested Brand’s complaints about the public being turned against him had been exaggerated, pointing to a 2,000-strong audience cheering Brand on stage after the allegations were first made.
uncertain
allegations → suggest → stage
He said: “The British public are not all meek and passive consumers of all that is claimed in the press.”
asserted
that → say → press
During the trial, Mr Winter attacked reporters again during his closing speech when he accused them of “poisoning the well” of evidence in the case.
asserted
he → attack → case
Brand, who is facing years behind bars after being found guilty of one rape and three sexual assaults, argued during his trial that his accusers had “reimagined” sexual encounters with him.
asserted
accusers → face → him
Asked in front of the jury by prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones KC whether he blamed the media for his downfall, Brand appeared stunned into silence before eventually replying: “In some ways.”
asserted
Brand → ask → ways
In a statement following the verdict in the Russell Brand case, a spokesman for the The Times and The Sunday Times said: “Today’s verdict is a testament to the courage of the women who came forward and informed The Times’ and The Sunday Times’ investigative reporting.
asserted
who → follow → reporting
…and 3 more, not listed.
The Aporia
