Russell Brand Sentenced to Over 10 Years in Prison for Rape and Sexual Assault

Russell Brand has been sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison after being found guilty of rape and sexual assault.

He’ll be expected to serve seven years of that prison sentence before being released on licence. Brand was silent as the sentencing was read out and mouthed “I love you” to his wife, Laura, as he was led away.

The judge, Justice Bennathan, took Brand through all of his crimes in extensive detail, citing the witness impact statements from the three victims before handing down the sentence. He said Brand operated with “staggering arrogance” during the attacks and that his entourage often “indulged” his “dreadful behavior.”

After a four-week trial at Southwark Crown Court, the jury delivered the verdicts on Thursday, finding the disgraced comedian and presenter guilty on one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault. He was found not guilty on two other rape charges and not guilty of attempted indecent assault.

The Met Police has also confirmed Brand is under investigation over further rape allegations.

The victims, who have been granted lifelong anonymity, spoke from behind a curtain at the sentencing hearing. “I wanted to express how this crime has impacted me,” said one during her witness impact statement according to BBC News coverage. “I’ve been in shock and turmoil for weeks. I was extremely upset and traumatised. I didn’t have any respect for myself… I was thinking I was damaged goods — scared of giving off signals that could be taken the wrong way.” She continued that there were many times she felt “physically sick” seeing Brand in the media. “I just want to say, a leopard may change its spots, but it’s still a leopard,” she added.

Another victim said in court on Monday: “Russell Brand is a sexual predator who has no remorse. […] I just hope he is not allowed to hurt any more women.”

But the star’s defence argued he is “a fundamentally different person today” and said his wife is experiencing “total devastation” by the convictions. His lawyer, Ian Winter, said the couple is “wrestling” with how to explain to one of their children, aged 10, what has happened.

The trial — and verdicts — captivated the country, leaving not just the industry but the entire British public with questions over how Brand went unreported for so long.

Thursday’s guilty rape verdict relates to a woman who met Brand at a Hammersmith Apollo gig of his in 2009. “I was expecting to have sex with him,” the victim told police about going to Brand’s house a week later. After consensual vaginal sex, Brand turned her onto her front and anally raped her. She recalled feeling as though “she couldn’t speak or breathe” and said she was in pain. When finally able to speak, the woman told Brand to stop “a few times quietly and then really loudly.” The anal rape lasted “minutes,” and Brand “looked absolutely fucking horrified” when it was over, she said. She expected him to apologize, but he only told her: “You need to clear up the mess you made.”

Brand was also found guilty of three sexual assaults. One was his grabbing a victim’s breasts at a bar in Soho in 2004; another was an incident in 2004/2005 at Capital Radio where he pushed a victim up against a wall, kissing her and grabbing at her body, breasts, sides and buttocks “aggressively”; and lastly, an incident where he put his head and nose in the “vaginal area” of a female colleague in 2009.