Piers Morgan called Ewan McGregor a 'child rapist lover' — here he is on convicted rapist Mike Tyson

When the actor Ewan McGregor tweeted that he had cancelled an appearance on Good Morning Britain over Piers Morgan's comments about the Women's March, the presenter and former tabloid newspaper editor lost it.

Morgan attacked McGregor, accusing him of hypocrisy over his work with Roman Polanski, the film director who pleaded guilty to raping a 13-year-old girl in 1977, but who ran away from the US to France before he could be sentenced.

After a new warrant for Polanski's arrest was issued in 2009, he was detained by police in Switzerland, though later released without being extradited to the US. McGregor, who worked with Polanksi on the 2010 film The Ghost Writer, said at the time that he felt "sad for Roman because he is an old man who I'm incredibly fond of".

Morgan went postal in a Daily Mail column headlined: "Memo to anyone who voted for Trump or Brexit –paedophile-loving hypocrite Ewan McGregor holds you in utter contempt. So why on earth would you want to see any of his movies ever again?"

But however valid Morgan's point is about what he argues is the moral hypocrisy of McGregor, he might need a hand down from his own gigantic horse.

The American boxer Mike Tyson is a convicted rapist and domestic abuser. Here's Morgan writing about trying to book Tyson for his CNN talkshow in 2011 when he encountered him in a boxing gym, and gave "a tortured explanation" about a joke he once made at Tyson's expense:

I gabbled out... how I'd been a fan for 20 years... He was almost Colin Firth-like in his easy charm.

This is from the original 1992 New York Times report about Tyson's 10-year sentence for rape:

Under the tutelage of a noted fight trainer, Cus D'Amato, Mr Tyson became, at age 20, the youngest heavyweight champion in boxing history.

Since that achievement, however, the Mike Tyson story has been more tragic than triumphant, with repeated episodes of aggressive sexual behavior toward women, including strangers he met in nightclubs or, in one widely publicised incident, a parking lot attendant.

But the most serious episode by far involved Desiree Washington, an 18-year-old college student who told the police and later testified in court that Mr Tyson raped her in his hotel room and laughed about it as she wept.

Here is Morgan playfully fighting with Mike Tyson on his CNN show in 2012: