British actor, comedian and media personality Russell Brand was found guilty in a Southwark Crown Court hearing on Thursday of raping a young fan and sexually assaulting three women. Brand, 51, was convicted of raping the 21‑year‑old admirer in 2009 after they met at one of his shows in west London. He was also found guilty of groping an MTV worker at a bar in central London in 2004, kissing and groping another woman at her workplace in 2005 and sexually assaulting another woman in 2009 when she was forced to give him a massage.
A jury of eight men and four women cleared the star of two separate charges of rape and one count of attempted indecent assault after deliberating for around eight and a half hours. Judge Joel Bennathan said the case was “very well prepared” and that sentencing would take place on Monday. Brand, who stood straight in the dock as the verdicts were revealed and closed his eyes as he heard he was found guilty of rape, has been remanded in custody. “The consequence of that is inevitably a significant custodial term,” Bennathan said.
Brand said “I love you” to his wife Laura Gallacher, an author and illustrator who consistently attended court with her husband, before he entered the dock to hear the verdicts. London’s Metropolitan Police Service said the comedian used his influence, status and fame to exploit and sexually offend against women. “As his profile grew, so too did his sense of entitlement. I hope this conviction sends a clear message that no one is above the law, no matter how famous or powerful they may be,” Detective Superintendent Andy Furphy said in a statement. The Met also confirmed investigations are continuing regarding two other allegations of rape made against Brand.
Speaking outside court, David Roberts of the Crown Prosecution Service said the evidence showed Brand “to be a calculated sexual predator, using his growing fame and power to create situations in which he could pursue women sexually regardless of what they wanted.” Accusers appeared in court over the past three weeks, revealing how Brand forced them into sexual activity when he was rising to fame as one of Britain’s best‑known stand‑up comedians and TV presenters.
During the trial, prosecutors argued that Brand was a “sexual predator” who was pursuing a mission to have sex with 5,000 women. Brand recognised that he had been obsessed with sex then but said that consent in sex was “fundamental.” The trial opened in London in mid‑October. One of the complainants told the court how the pair had met after a gig at the Hammersmith Apollo in 2009. She said the pair had engaged in a consensual threesome at the venue before she went to his townhouse for sex several days later. However, she said their second meeting turned into rape when he forced her into anal sex and ignored her pleas to stop.
The woman said she had turned to alcoholism in the wake of the incident. Another woman told the court she “felt ashamed” and that the comedian acted “like nothing happened” after he groped her at a party at a bar in Soho, central London, in 2004. Brand started his career in showbiz as a stand‑up comedian, drawing on his own experiences with illegal drugs and sex addiction for his performances. He became a British household name in the early 2000s as the host of “Celebrity Big Brother’s Big Mouth.”
Brand’s chaotic energy, unfiltered language and provocative jokes made him a divisive pop culture personality, with the public split on loving or hating his act. In 2001, he was fired from MTV UK after turning up to work dressed as Osama bin Laden two days after the September 11 terror attacks. He later attributed his behaviour to his addiction to crack cocaine and heroin. Brand went to rehab in 2002 and says he has remained sober since. In 2006, he moved to mainstream radio with “The Russell Brand Show” on BBC Radio 2, a weekly Saturday night program. However, the popular radio show ended abruptly two years later with Brand’s exit following the broadcast of sexist and misogynistic voice messages to “Fawlty Towers” star Andrew Sachs, which sparked outrage and breached UK broadcasting regulations.
But the scandal didn’t halt Brand’s rise to global stardom. He went on to star in several Hollywood movies including “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “Get Him to the Greek.” He was married to US pop star Katy Perry between 2010 and 2012. In the past decade, Brand has shifted away from his eccentric, sex‑forward image and started making podcasts around spirituality, meditation and yoga. In 2017, he wrote a self‑help guide, “Recovery: Freedom From Our Addictions,” while his performances moved from theatre stages to wellness gatherings. That same year, he married Gallacher, with whom he has three children. Since the Covid‑19 pandemic, he has cultivated something of a cult following online, with more than 6.6 million subscribers to his YouTube channel.
