Russell Brand’s wife Laura Gallacher is standing by him, court hears

Russell Brand’s wife Laura Gallacher is standing by her husband as he faces years in prison, the disgraced comedian’s sentencing hearing has been told.

Ms Gallacher, 38, was in the public gallery for the convicted sex attacker’s sentencing at Southwark Crown Court on Monday.

Brand was found guilty last week of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault following a high-profile trial.

The court heard Ms Gallacher was devastated by the guilty verdicts but has decided to stand by her husband.

Brand’s barrister Ian Winter KC told the court Ms Gallacher is “standing by him”.

“Words are completely inadequate… to convey the total devastation she’s experiencing,” he said.

“They are wrestling with how to explain to a child who’s just turned 10 what has just happened here and the consequences of this conduct to totally innocent people who have been caught up in it.”

Brand winked and then nodded at his wife and members of his entourage while crutching a crucifix in his hands as his sentencing hearing was paused for lunch.

Mr Justice Bennathan said he would begin his sentencing remarks at 2pm.

Brand, aged 51, spent the weekend in a cell after he was found guilty at Southwark Crown Court of raping a woman in 2009, as well as sexually assaulting female TV and radio workers between 2004 and 2009.

A jury of eight men and four women took around nine hours to deliver their verdicts for each of the seven allegations against him.

After the verdicts were delivered, Mr Justice Bennathan told Brand that he faced a “significant custodial term”.

Brand and Gallacher met in 2006 when she was a 19-year-old art student and he was 31. Laura is the daughter of former golfer Bernard Gallacher and sister of TV presenter Kirsty Gallacher. She married Brand in 2017 and they have three children.

In October when the trial had started, Brand and his wife continued to publish weekly episodes of their religious podcast, Sunday Service with the Brands.

The podcast showed the couple sitting in their pyjamas with their cat in the window seat of their riverside UK base near Henley-on-Thames for the hour-long episode.

Wearing a leopard print dressing gown, Brand addressed the elephant in the room.

“We are of course in the middle of a very, very unusual time in our marriage and for legal reasons which you be aware of if you follow what I would call old media, traditional media, at some points I would call it corrupt media, hypocritical media, deceptive - empire media, that’s the term,” he said.