Russell Brand's conviction a 'watershed' moment for sex assault trials after disgraced comic tried to use 'rape myths' to discredit victims, courts minister warns
Russell Brand's conviction must be a 'watershed moment' for the treatment of sexual assault victims in criminal courts, a courts minister has said.
The rapist comedian, 51, deployed a series of rape myths during his explosive four-week trial at Southwark Crown Court.
The disgraced former BBC radio host argued his accusers should not be believed because they did not scream, kick out or flee during his vile attacks.
This week, Brand was sentenced to ten and a half years behind bars after being found guilty of rape and three counts of sexual assault.
Sarah Sackman KC, the courts and legal services minister, has since called for his conviction to serve as a catalyst for eliminating myths from the justice process.
'The events of this week in the Russell Brand trial represent a watershed moment, where we should be looking to transform the culture in our courts,' she said.
'We don't want our courts to become sites of retraumatisation, where the complainant and victims feel like they're the ones that are being put on trial.'
In his closing speech, Brand's defence barrister Ian Winter KC argued the comedian was not a rapist because his accusers had not 'resisted or screamed or even tried to leave'.
He also argued that Brand leaving his phone number and email address behind pointed to him being not guilty.
It comes amid calls from Victims Commissioner Claire Waxman for judges to direct juries if rape myths have been ventured during a trial.
Russell Brand, 51, was found guilty of raping one woman and sexually assaulting three others as the comic faces years behind bars for his crimes
Sarah Sackman KC, the courts and legal services minister, has since called for his conviction to serve as a catalyst for eliminating myths from the justice process
The idea has also been backed by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley.
Labour is now introducing specialist rape courts in every Crown Court, the training of which has been witnessed by Ms Sackman.
'Part of that training is about how you address rape myths, how you direct the jury to ignore those rape myths, and focus on the evidence at hand, and on the evidence that's being presented by the complainant,' she said.
'I trust our judges to do that.'
During a tour of the new court and justice centre on Fleet Street, the minister said the judge in the Brand trial had given directions to the jury on assessing the evidence.
She also noted that Mr Justice Bennathan made a point of condemning rape myths after Brand's defence barrister came under fire for reeling off a series of stereotypes.
The judge said: 'Whatever women wear, wherever they go, indeed whatever they drink, they retain the right to say no and to demand justice from the criminal courts when sexual predators like you, Russell Brand, act without their consent.'
Backing his approach, she said: 'The fact that a woman had been drinking, whether she had screamed or reported, none of that was relevant to whether she had given her consent to what, in the end, was an appalling crime of rape.
'I think we saw, in those remarks, the judge… explaining exactly how crimes of this nature should be approached.'
Ms Sackman also addressed reports of sexual misconduct allegations against David Walliams and the use of non-disclosure agreements in the entertainment industry to stop alleged victims from speaking out.
Yesterday, Walliams was unmasked as the celebrity who fought a court order to suppress allegations that he had preyed on multiple teenagers and had sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl. He denies wrongdoing.
'I am clear that we will never tackle the culture of abuse against women and girls until we tackle the culture of silence,' she said.
'The Government will not stand for abuse of the legal and court processes to silence victims from coming forward with their stories.'
Minister of State for Courts and Legal Services Sarah Sackman during a visit to the new London Law Courts, in Salisbury Square today
Russell Brand outside Southwark Crown Court on November 5 with his wife Laura Gallacher, on the day he was found guilty of his crimes
We speak to the detective who brought down Russell Brand
Hi, I'm Alex Matthews, Editor of The Crime Desk.
Russell Brand has been found guilty of rape and three sexual assaults - and our reporters Caroline Cheetham and Liz Hull were in court every day to witness it all. They sat down with Detective Inspector Laura Nelson who revealed why the women who accused him in the infamous documentary were not involved in his rape trial.
Subscribe to The Crime Desk to listen to the podcast.
It comes as Brand was convicted of raping a 21-year-old fan he picked out of the crowd after one of his Hammersmith Apollo gigs in 2009.
Overawed by Brand's fame, the woman agreed to go to the star's £2.3million Hampstead mansion a few days later for sex.
But she said the encounter started with Brand unnervingly forcing her to strip, shower and brush her teeth before they went to bed together.
Brand, then 33, pushed the woman face down into a pillow on his 'enormous' bed and removed his condom while raping her, leaving her struggling to breathe.
She was left bleeding and afterwards said Brand ordered her to 'clean up the mess you've made', before switching on the TV to watch the sci-fi series Quantum Leap.
During the trial, Riel Karmy-Jones, prosecuting, said women were a 'disposable commodity' to the comedian, whom she dubbed 'a sexual predator'.
'They didn't matter to him. He didn't even need to know their names. They were just a means to an end.'
The woman recounted that she later told Brand: 'You treated me like an animal,' and that he replied: 'I'm sorry.'
Brand's victims told the court how he forced them into sexual activity, sometimes within seconds of first meeting them, while exploiting his fame in pursuit of a goal of sleeping with 5,000 women.
After an explosive four-week trial, and eight-and-a-half hours of deliberations, Brand was convicted of the 2009 rapes as well as a sexual assault of an MTV worker at a party in Soho. But he was cleared of orally raping her in a toilet afterwards.
The born-again Christian, who said he wore the 'full armour of God' in court, was also found guilty of sexually assaulting a Capital Radio worker after encountering her in a corridor in 2005.
He was further convicted for sexually assaulting a Channel 4 employee during a forced massage in 2009. He was cleared of two charges of rape and one of attempted indecent assault.
Brand now also faces fresh accusations of raping two more women, including a 16-year-old schoolgirl. The Crown Prosecution Service are seeking to bring further charges.
The entertainment industry also faces several questions after Brand boasted that his BBC boss, Lesley Douglas, was 'incredibly tolerant' of his inappropriate sexual behaviour while he was a star presenter, as well as Channel 4 bosses who turned a blind eye.
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