Russell Brand found guilty of rape and sexual assault by London court

British comedian and actor Russell Brand has been found guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault by a jury at Southwark Crown Court in London. The 51-year-old was acquitted of two other rape charges and one count of attempted indecent assault.

Judge Joel Bennathan said Brand would be sentenced on Monday and faced a lengthy prison term. Brand was taken into custody after the verdict.

Prosecutors and police

Prosecutors described Brand, a former television presenter and star of films including Get Him to the Greek and Arthur, as a "ruthless" sexual predator. He had denied the allegations, maintaining that the encounters were consensual or that the claims had been fabricated.

Detective Superintendent Andy Furphy of London's Metropolitan Police said the conviction was "a testament to the extraordinary courage, resilience and determination of the women who came forward and reported what happened to them". He added: "Brand used his influence, status and fame to exploit and sexually offend against women. As his profile grew, so too did his sense of entitlement."

What the court heard

The charges covered incidents between 1999 and 2009, the years in which Brand rose from performing stand-up comedy in small venues to becoming a television presenter and a Hollywood film star.

The court heard testimony from six complainants, all entitled to lifelong anonymity. None of the women knew each other, but all went to police after a television documentary and press reports in 2023 carried anonymous allegations against Brand by other women.

The most graphic evidence concerned the 2009 rape for which he was convicted. The woman said she had met Brand after a gig, where she had a sexual encounter with him in his dressing room. Days later, she said, she went to his home, where he raped her during what had been consensual sex, and afterwards told her to clean up the blood and mess.

Brand was also convicted of sexually assaulting a woman at a London bar in 2004, where the woman told the court he approached her at a party and grabbed her breasts. In a separate 2009 incident, the court heard he demanded a massage from a woman he was working with on a promotional project and put his head between her legs in front of two colleagues. He was convicted of sexually assaulting a woman who worked at a radio station in 2004 or 2005, in front of his entourage.

Brand, a former husband of the American pop star Katy Perry, was one of Britain's most prominent broadcasters before the allegations emerged.

Source: Al Jazeera.