Russell Brand's barrister criticised over rape remarks at sentencing
Two Cabinet ministers condemned Ian Winter KC's courtroom comments as "shameful" and said they risk deterring rape victims from reporting offences.
Cabinet ministers condemn Brand's barrister over sentencing remarks on rape consent
The barrister who represented Russell Brand at his sentencing hearing has drawn sharp condemnation from two senior government ministers, who said his courtroom comments risked discouraging rape victims from reporting offences to police.
Ian Winter KC, acting for Brand before Southwark Crown Court on Monday, told the judge that the woman Brand raped in 2009 had engaged in "fully consensual" vaginal sex prior to the offence. He asked the court to sentence Brand, 51, on the "lesser basis" that the rape amounted to "quite a short … momentary total failure to respect her consent", during which a condom was removed. He added: "This should be regarded as a man who went too far and overrode consent that had been given."
The Evening Standard reports that Women and Equalities Minister Bridget Phillipson was among the first to respond. "These comments are shameful, and a callous trivialisation of the experiences of women everywhere who have experienced sexual violence," she told The Times. "It is precisely because of characterisations such as this one that women so often fear they will not be believed, and so often choose not to come forward."
Education Secretary Lucy Powell, speaking to Sky News, said she found the manner in which victims had been cross-examined "incredibly depressing". "I thought we were past that era," she said. Powell later told LBC Radio that "these myths around rape" had been the subject of clearer official guidance, but that more still needed to be done. "I think many of us were really shocked that that could still take place in a courtroom today," she said.
Brand was sentenced on Monday to ten years and six months in prison for raping a 21-year-old fan at his London home and for three counts of sexual assault against television and radio workers.
During the trial, Winter had argued that Brand's accusers could not be considered to have been raped because they had not "resisted or screamed or even tried to leave." Referring to a woman Brand sexually assaulted at a Soho bar in 2004, he told the court in mitigation: "She was not particularly vulnerable at all. Being tipsy is not something that gave rise to vulnerability and there's no evidence the defendant knew she was tipsy so to be vulnerable."
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said what had been reported from Brand's trial came very close to "victim blaming". Presiding judge Mr Justice Bennathan addressed the issue directly at sentencing: "Whatever women wear, wherever they go, indeed whatever they drink, they retain the right to say no."
During the proceedings, Winter had also reported himself to his professional regulator after being accused of a verbal confrontation with a female journalist who had investigated Brand, shortly after the guilty verdict was returned.
On Tuesday, Brand began his first full day in custody as a convicted rapist. He is understood to have been transferred to HMP Wandsworth in south-west London, a prison that has previously been condemned for what inspectors described as "inhuman living conditions".
Source: Evening Standard