Katherine Ryan joked Russell Brand was a ‘predator’ in 2018, and after his conviction she said ‘I don’t know if you can podcast from jail’

Katherine Ryan spoke out on her podcast, This and That, after Russell Brand was convicted of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault, as reported by LADbible. “I don’t know if you can podcast from jail, I hope not,” Ryan said.

Brand was convicted on Nov. 5, and Mr. Justice Bennathan, the presiding judge, told him to expect a “significant custodial sentence.” His sentencing hearing is set for Nov. 9.

Ryan said she hadn’t been watching the trial “very closely” because she found it “extremely sad.” She also criticized Brand’s defense barrister, Ian Winter KC, over an incident outside the court after the verdict.

She wasn’t impressed with how his lawyer reacted

Winter reportedly confronted Sunday Times journalist Rosamund Urwin, who helped lead the joint investigation that first exposed the allegations against Brand. Winter reportedly told Urwin, “I hope you are pleased with yourself.” When Urwin replied that she was “pleased justice was done,” Winter reportedly said, “Well, it wasn’t. You f***ed it… congratulations.”

Ryan called Winter’s behavior an “unprofessional fit of childlike tantrum.” She said, “He swore at her, this man, just because he lost. That was so unprofessional, so inappropriate, so aggressive, really sickening.”

Ryan said the verdict came because “women were heard,” but added, “A lot of the celebratory ‘aha’ has rubbed me the wrong way, I will never be the person who dances on graves.” She said there is “grief alongside relief” and that the court proved “a terrible thing happened.”

She also voiced worries about what comes next. “He’s spent a long time cultivating this idea that the establishment have invented these claims against him, he’s martyred himself to a growing audience who really still think it’s the courageous survivors who are the villains in this story,” she said.

Ryan said she hopes for “peace and healing” for Brand’s family, adding, “I certainly think this is a better situation for them. It will be painful for a while, it’s just pain.” She also paid tribute to the “brave witnesses,” including several men who spoke out against Brand during the trial.

Ryan was among the first to speak out about Brand, who was taken into custody after the verdict. She previously referred to a “well known predator” in an interview with Louis Theroux but didn’t name him, saying it wasn’t her story to tell because she had not been assaulted by him.

It later came out that Ryan had repeatedly joked that Brand was a “sexual predator” on a 2018 episode of Comedy Central’s Roast Battle, where the two were judges. The jokes did not make the final cut, but they led to Brand being dropped from the show, per LADbible.