Russell Brand Sentencing at Southwark Crown Court Due Monday
Comedian Russell Brand, 51, is due to be sentenced on Monday at Southwark Crown Court in London after a jury convicted him of rape and three counts of sexual assault. The judge has warned he faces a significant custodial term.
Comedian and actor Russell Brand is due to be sentenced on Monday at Southwark Crown Court in London, after a jury found him guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault. Judge Joel Bennathan told the 51-year-old he faced a "significant custodial term."
The verdicts came after a four-week trial that drew massive media attention. Brand denied all charges and said he never had sex without consent.
He has been in custody since the verdict. His lawyer asked the judge to grant bail so Brand could spend the weekend with his three children, and the judge refused. Brand spent his first weekend in a prison cell in London.
He showed little emotion as the verdicts were read. His wife, Laura, who has supported him throughout, quickly left the courtroom.
The trial examined seven historic charges brought by six different women. Jurors convicted Brand on four of them.
One was the rape of a woman who had been to one of his comedy shows in 2009. The other three were sexual assaults on three women between 2004 and 2009, at a bar, a radio station and a TV studio.
Brand was found not guilty of two counts of rape and one count of attempted indecent assault.
Danny Shaw, a crime commentator and former BBC correspondent, said on X that the maximum sentence for rape in the UK is life. He said the average is 10 years and that Brand was likely to receive between four and 13 years in prison.
Many people have called the verdict a significant milestone for the #MeToo movement, which has seen influential men held to account for using their power to abuse women.
London police detective Andy Furphy addressed the media after the verdict. He said Brand had "used his influence, status and fame to prey on women — as his profile grew, so too did his sense of entitlement."
Camilla Long, a journalist for The Sunday Times, wrote in a weekend column about the trial. Her newspaper was one of the first to investigate allegations of abuse against Brand. She described sitting in court 3 at Southwark Crown Court and hearing how Brand grabbed, pushed, groped and degraded his victims as one of the most disgusting experiences of her life.
Long also asked how Brand got away with his behavior for so long. "Never has a predator so loudly declared himself, yet been so roundly ignored," she wrote.
Brand has also faced allegations of crimes in the United States. In 2023, a woman named only as Jane Doe accused him of sexually assaulting her. That year Brand married pop star Katy Perry, and the couple divorced after just over a year.
