A London jury just told Russell Brand he is a rapist. Sentencing is Monday. He's already in a cell.
The Verdict
On Thursday, Nov. 5, a jury at Southwark Crown Court found Brand, 51, guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault, the BBC, the Crown Prosecution Service and The Guardian report.
He was found not guilty of two other rape counts and one count of attempted indecent assault. The jury of eight men and four women deliberated for about eight and a half hours after a four-week trial.
The convictions involve four women and cover offences between 2004 and 2009, according to the CPS. Brand faced allegations from six women spanning 1999 to 2009, the BBC reports. Under UK law, the complainants have lifelong anonymity.
What the Jury Upheld
According to reporting from the BBC, Reuters and The Guardian:
- Brand was convicted of raping a fan he met after a 2009 stand-up show at the Hammersmith Apollo. The Guardian and Reuters report she was invited backstage, that some sexual activity that night and later at his home was described as consensual, and that the jury found he then raped her. The conviction is for that non-consensual act.
- He was found guilty of sexually assaulting an MTV worker by grabbing her breasts at a Soho bar party in 2004. The jury cleared him of a related rape count from the same night involving an encounter in the toilets, the BBC, Reuters and The Guardian report.
- He was convicted of kissing and groping a Choice FM worker in a corridor at the Capital Radio building in 2004 or 2005.
- He was also convicted of sexually assaulting a Channel 4 worker in 2009 after she was forced to give him a massage.
He was cleared of a rape allegation tied to a 1999 cabaret encounter in Bournemouth, and of trying to drag an MTV worker into a toilet to indecently assault her in 2001, the BBC reports.
Remanded Until Monday
Mr Justice Joel Bennathan remanded Brand into custody and refused bail. Sentencing is set for Monday, Nov. 9, at the same court.
"You've been convicted of a number of offences including rape," the judge told him, according to the BBC and Yahoo News. "The consequence of that is inevitably a significant custodial term."
Brand had asked for bail over the weekend to speak with his children. The judge said he regretted the hardship for the children, but that Brand "has considerable resources" and there were "substantial grounds to fear he might in the end not feel able to come along and face his sentence," per the BBC.
He Denied Everything
Brand pleaded not guilty and denied all the charges. In a December 2023 police interview, footage released by the Metropolitan Police, he said he had led a "very promiscuous life" but had "never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity," Yahoo News reports.
In court, he admitted using fame to "facilitate sexual access" and being "obsessed" with sex in the past, the BBC reports, while insisting the sex was always consensual. His barrister told jurors Brand "had an immense amount of sex," but that "none of it was unlawful," per the BBC.
After the verdicts, Brand showed little emotion, the BBC reports. He mouthed "I'm good, I'm good" to his lawyers as he left the dock.
His father, Ron Brand, told the BBC he was "bemused and shocked" by the verdicts. "I just didn't expect this — it's wrong… it's devastating."
More Allegations Under Investigation
Separately, Brand is under investigation over two further rape allegations from two women. He has been interviewed under caution. Files have been submitted to the CPS. He has not been charged in those cases, according to Metropolitan Police statements reported by the BBC, The Guardian and Yahoo News. The Met said the investigation "remains ongoing."
Detective Superintendent Andy Furphy, who led the case, called Brand "a predator" and urged others to come forward. "Our work's not done," he told The Guardian. In a Met statement after the verdict, he said Brand "used his influence, status and fame to exploit and sexually offend against women" and that "no one is above the law, no matter how famous or powerful they may be."
Senior crown prosecutor David Roberts said Brand was "predatory" and "a manipulator with an insatiable desire to get what he wanted regardless of whether consent was given or not," according to the CPS.
The Guardian also reports Brand faces civil claims in Britain and the U.S. He denies those claims. Civil cases are not criminal charges.
The Police Interview Footage
After the verdict, the Metropolitan Police released video from Brand's police interviews, which TMZ shared on X.
https://twitter.com/TMZ/status/2118433376130515415
How This Started
The Times, the Sunday Times and Channel 4's Dispatches jointly reported allegations against Brand in September 2023. The Times has said its own inquiries into Brand began in 2019. The women in this trial came forward after that coverage, the CPS says.
Brand and his legal team cast the reporting as a coordinated media attack. The Guardian reports his lawyers argued before trial that the Dispatches documentary and Times coverage had "destroyed" him. Brand had also publicly called the allegations a coordinated media attack, according to contemporaneous Times reporting. The jury convicted him on four counts anyway.
Brand rose to fame as a stand-up, TV and radio presenter, then as a Hollywood actor, before reinventing himself as an online commentator.
