Russell Brand Convicted of Rape and Sexual Assault in Southwark Crown Court
A London jury convicted comedian Russell Brand of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault at Southwark Crown Court, and he was remanded in custody until sentencing on Monday.
Newsnibs Staff
- 2026-11-06
- Updated 8:04 PM UTC
(London, United Kingdom)
A jury at Southwark Crown Court in London on Thursday convicted comedian and actor Russell Brand, 51, of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault. He was cleared of two other counts of rape and one count of attempted indecent assault. Judge Joel Bennathan remanded him in custody until sentencing on Monday, saying a custodial sentence of some length was likely and that extending bail was unlikely because of the risk he would avoid court.
The trial lasted about three weeks and covered seven charges involving six women, with alleged incidents between 1999 and 2009. Brand denied all of them and said the contact was consensual. The Metropolitan Police investigated complaints from two women before sending files to the Crown Prosecution Service.
The rape conviction concerns an incident in 2009 at Brand's Hampstead home. The complainant was 21, a fan who had met him around a gig at the Hammersmith Apollo, and Brand was more than a decade older. She told the court he invited her to his townhouse and made her shower first. She said she felt "degraded", asked him to stop, and that he did not.
The three sexual assault convictions involve women who worked in media. An MTV worker was assaulted at a Soho venue in 2004, when Brand grabbed her breasts; the jury cleared him of an alleged rape of the same woman in a toilet. A radio worker was assaulted at a station in the mid-2000s. She said he overpowered her in a violent attack and described a "culture of fear", with his entourage watching without stepping in. A Channel 4 worker was assaulted in 2009 during a recording session. She said he lunged at her crotch and forced her to massage him under the threat that an advert would not be completed, while his team laughed.
The acquittals covered a woman who met Brand at the 1999 Labour Party conference in Bournemouth and told the court she "froze" when he raped her, and a 2001 allegation that he tried to indecently assault a woman at MTV's London offices.
Brand's barrister, Ian Winter KC, told jurors his client was not a "psychopath who rapes people" and argued the case had been shaped by a 2023 documentary and anonymous accusations. "It is not criminal to treat women unkindly before, during or after sex," he said. Brand gave evidence on October 28, admitting "reckless philandering" and "idiocy" while denying the charges. His lawyers had earlier tried to have the case dropped over prejudicial coverage, including a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary and articles in the Times and Sunday Times. That documentary was not shown to the jury, and jurors were selected because they had never seen it.
Lead prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones KC described Brand as predatory and said he used his celebrity status to commit sexual crimes, stressing the vulnerability of the women involved. Passages from his memoir "My Booky Wook" were read to the jury, and his former assistant Helen Berger testified about his "insane sexual appetite". After submissions from Brand's lawyers, the prosecution agreed to leave out his past marriage to Katy Perry, his religious interests including his 2024 baptism, and evidence of his drug and alcohol dependency.
Brand's wife, Laura Gallacher, attended the trial and the verdict. She testified about the baptism and described him as a "wonderful father" and an "amazingly attentive husband". Before the verdict, Brand told her, "Laura, I love you." A bodyguard rushed her from court afterward.
The trial drew heavy coverage, including five daily podcasts and live-blogging by content creators. One blogger was arrested for publishing identifying information about a complainant.
Photo by Michael D Beckwith on Unsplash