Russell Brand found guilty of rape and sexual assault

A London jury found comedian and actor Russell Brand guilty Thursday of raping a woman in 2009 and sexually assaulting three others, rejecting his insistence that he had never forced anyone into sexual activity. A judge told Brand he faces a significant prison term and ordered him held until sentencing Monday.

Brand, 51, was convicted of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault after a four-week trial at Southwark Crown Court. He was acquitted of two other rape counts and one count of attempted indecent assault. He had pleaded not guilty to all seven charges and denied the allegations, saying the encounters were consensual or that the accounts had been reinvented or re-imagined.

“You’ve been convicted of a number of offenses including rape,” Justice Joel Bennathan told Brand, saying a “significant custodial term” was inevitable.

The charges arose from allegations by six women concerning incidents between 1999 and 2009, a period that included Brand’s rise as a stand-up comedian and television and radio presenter. Prosecutors said the women did not know one another and separately went to police after a British television documentary aired in 2023.

The women described alleged encounters in a seaside hotel room, an MTV office, a London bar, a radio station, Brand’s home and at an advertisement recording. CBS News reported that the rape conviction concerned a woman who said Brand assaulted her in 2009.

Prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones told jurors that Brand had an “indiscriminate and voracious” desire for sexual contact and that “women were simply a means to an end.” She called him “calculating” and “manipulative,” describing him as a “sexual predator.”

Taking the stand, Brand acknowledged that he had been obsessed with sex when he was younger and famous. “I have been persuasive, seductive, begging and flirting, and have dedicated a lot of my life to what seems now beyond reckless philandering and idiocy,” he said. He also acknowledged using fame to facilitate sexual access, which he said was wrong, while maintaining that he had not forced anyone to act against their will. “Consent is fundamental, essential, necessary and indeed more important than sex itself,” he told the court.

Brand said the allegations had consumed his life and affected his marriage, children and health. His wife, Laura Gallacher, testified that he was a “caring, kind and a wonderful father.” They married in 2017 and have three young children.

Brand became known internationally through films including “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “Get Him to the Greek.” He was married to singer Katy Perry from 2010 to 2012. NBC News reported that he has since moved to Florida and built a large online following discussing politics, wellness, conspiracy theories and Christianity.

After the verdict, Detective Superintendent Andy Furphy of London’s Metropolitan Police said Brand had “used his influence, status and fame to exploit and sexually offend against women.” He praised the women’s “extraordinary courage” in recounting their experiences under intense public scrutiny.