WARNING: distressing content
Russell Brand has been sentenced to 10 and a half years in jail for a litany of sexual abuse that occurred just offstage from a public life built around boasts of his erotic exploits.
Brand, 51, was found guilty of raping one woman in a 1999 encounter and sexually assaulting three others between 2004 and 2009.
The disgraced actor and comedian was handed the sentence by judge Justice Joel Bennathan, who bluntly told Brand he had become a “sexual predator” while recounting in grim detail how he had anally raped one of his victims and then added to her humiliation by telling her afterwards to clean her soiled sheets because “it’s your mess”.
He also slammed Brand’s arrogance and entitlement when detailing his attack on another victim who the judge said “felt she had no choice” given that Brand – “a famous man” – obviously felt he could act “how he liked, when he liked, unhindered by the rules by which decent people live”.
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Brand was sentenced to 9 years for the one count of rape and the remainder of the sentence for the separate counts of sexual assault on three other complainants, to be served concurrently.
The scathing sentencing remarks came after London’s Southwark Crown Court heard impact statements from four victims, one of whom said he had “no remorse”.
Another victim who was sexually assaulted while working on a Channel 4 project with Brand in 2009 said in her statement that she felt “powerless” and that she “lost my trust in people”.
“I felt my working environment wasn’t safe,” she says, adding: “I felt powerless in that moment.”
Another woman, who Brand was found guilty of raping anally, said she was terrified she had contracted HIV and felt impacted by a definite “power imbalance” caused by her abuser’s fame which affected her ability to speak out about what happened.
“The defendant’s public profile had a significant impact on me”, she said in a statement read to the court.
“His fame… wealth created a power imbalance.
“He was so powerful, rich and influential.”
The prosecution told the court that this particular victim “did idolise him and was star struck”.
The British actor-comedian known for outrageous stand-up routines and battles with drugs and alcohol asserted that he was innocent and all his encounters were consensual.
But a jury of eight men and four women found him guilty of attacking four of six accusers on allegations dating back to 2004. He was cleared of two counts of rape and one count of attempted indecent assault.
Brand’s sentencing came just hours after arrived at Southwark Crown Court in a prison van shortly after his wife, Laura, entered the courthouse without him. Brand had been free during the trial but was jailed following the verdict and did not go home Thursday with his wife.
Brand paused in the docks after the sentencing to mouth some words to wife Laura who replied “I love you”. He was then led away to the cells.
Before he was sentenced Brand’s barrister Ian Winter KC at one point referenced the “total devastation” being felt by his spouse in court today and that the judge should consider the impact on his wife and their 10-year-old child when handing down his sentence.
He also told the court that Brand was “a fundamentally different person now” compared with who he was at time of the offences. He also said that Brand’s behavior at the time was perhaps a “consequence” of his increasing fame.
A couple of Brand’s supporters who reflected his recent conversion to Christianity held a banner with crosses that said: “Russell Brand we stand with you. Christ was crucified for telling the truth. Russell is the truth.”
Brand was partly damned at trial by his own words about his obsession with sex and his well-documented life of promiscuity.
Prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones called Brand a ruthless, calculating, manipulative “sexual predator” who treated women as a “disposable commodity.”
She quoted from his 2007 memoir My Booky Wook to illustrate how his insatiable sex drive led him to cross the line.
“If I want something — whether it’s a job or a woman — I will determinedly, resolutely, remove anything that’s in the way, until I possess the object of my desire,” he wrote.
The accusers came forward following a 2023 investigation by The Times and Channel 4 that aired accusations from women who said they had been sexually abused and degraded by Brand.
Brand was convicted of sexually assaulting a woman during a birthday party at a London bar in 2004, but cleared of orally raping her in a restroom.
He was also found guilty of kissing and groping another woman at a London radio station in 2004 or 2005 and of anally raping a fan at his home after meeting her backstage at one of his comedy shows in 2009.
The final conviction was for sexually assaulting a different woman who says the comedian demanded a massage and pressed his face into her groin during the recording of an advertisement in 2009.
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Brand was acquitted of raping another woman in a hotel room during the Labour Party’s annual conference in the seaside town of Bournemouth in 1999, and of attempting to indecently assault a woman by dragging her into the men’s bathroom at the London office of music channel MTV.
The Associated Press doesn’t name victims of alleged sexual violence, and British law protects their identities from the media for life.
Brand, who was known for edgy stand-up routines and battles with drugs and alcohol, rose to prominence in the early 2000s hosting television programs and his own BBC radio show. He appeared in Hollywood films including Forgetting Sarah Marshall and “Get Him to the Greek” and was briefly married to pop star Katy Perry.
In recent years he has moved away from mainstream media, relocated to Florida and built a large online following with videos mixing wellness, conspiracy theories and discussions of his religious devotion.
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