His victims came to court to reveal how Brand had forced them into sexual activity, sometimes within seconds of them first meeting, using his immense fame to determinedly pursue a goal of sex with 5,000 women.
asserted
them → come → women
Six women gave evidence against Brand, while the former comedian, who was once married to Katy Perry, could not persuade any of his celebrity friends or former showbiz colleagues to give evidence in his defence.
uncertain
who → give → defence
On Thursday, a jury found Brand guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault.
asserted
Brand → find → assault
He was cleared of two further charges of rape and one allegation of attempted indecent assault.
asserted
He → clear → assault
Brand displayed no emotion as he was found guilty, other than to close his eyes when the guilty verdict on the rape charge was announced.
asserted
verdict → display → charge
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He loudly replied “yes My Lord” when he was remanded into custody.
asserted
he → read → custody
Ms Gallacher was seen to hunch over in the public gallery when Brand was told he now faces an inevitable prison term.
asserted
he → see → term
Brand now faces the prospect of a lengthy prison term when he is sentenced on Monday next week, just over three years after first being exposed as a rapist and sexual predator.
asserted
he → face → rapist
In September 2023, an investigation by journalists from The Sunday Times, The Times, and Channel 4 Dispatches published accusations from women who said they had been raped, sexual abused, and degraded by Brand.
asserted
they → publish → Brand
The revelations prompted four women to come forward to accuse Brand of criminal offences, while another two women came forward once Brand had been charged.
asserted
Brand → prompt → offences
At the height of his success, Brand was named Shagger Of The Year three times in a row by The Sun newspaper as his behaviour towards women was accepted and even celebrated.
asserted
behaviour → name → women
But evidence at his criminal trial revealed Brand to be a man who abused his fame to obtain sex while treating women as objects, while his entourage and showbiz bosses faced accusations of “normalising” sexual misconduct and failing to act on complaints against the star.
asserted
entourage → reveal → star
Brand got his big TV break in 2004 when he was chosen to host Big Brother’s Big Mouth, and within a couple of months of the show starting he had sexually assaulted a woman in the Nordic bar in Soho, central London.
asserted
he → get → Soho
At a party of his former MTV colleagues, Brand grabbed the woman’s breasts while stood in the middle of the bar.
asserted
Brand → grab → bar
She accused him of dragging her to the men’s toilets and orally raping her, but the jury found Brand not guilty on that count.
asserted
Brand → accuse → count
The woman told the court the “lad culture” of the time meant she did not report her interaction with Brand to police, telling the court: “He was a celebrity and it would be his word against mine.
asserted
it → tell → mine
“I just thought the odds weren’t in my favour.
asserted
odds → think → favour
worker at Capital Radio said Brand forced himself on to her during a visit to the station in 2005, pinning her to a wall while he groped and “sloppily” kissed her.
asserted
he → say → her
She told jurors members of Brand’s entourage watched on as the attack happened, and did nothing but laugh as she looked over pleading for them to intervene.
asserted
them → tell → nothing
A Russell Brand superfan told the court how she willingly had a threesome with the comedian in 2009 after one of his shows at the Hammersmith Apollo.
asserted
she → tell → Apollo
Overawed by Brand’s fame, the 21-year-old – who was in a relationship at the time – agreed to go to the star’s £2.3 million Hampstead townhouse a few days later for sex.
asserted
who → overawe → 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.
asserted
they → say → bed
She told jurors they had “awkward” consensual sex, but Brand then forced her into anal sex and ignored her cries of pain.
asserted
Brand → tell → pain
Women were a “disposable commodity” to Brand, said prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones KC, who dubbed him a “sexual predator”.
asserted
who → say → predator”
“They didn’t matter to him.
asserted
“They → matter → him
He didn’t even need to know their names.
asserted
He → need → names
fan who was raped at Brand’s home later bumped into him at Edinburgh Festival, and said he apologised after she said he had treated her “like an animal”.
asserted
he → rap → animal
In 2009, during a recording session at Channel 4, members of Brand’s entourage, Jack Bayles and Gareth Roy, forced a young female staffer to give him a massage, the court heard.
asserted
court → force → massage
When she had reluctantly agreed, Brand thrust his head into the woman’s groin and only got up again when apparently insulted that she had commented on his “bony” body.
asserted
she → agree → body
“I was so repulsed by the situation”, she told the court, and said she complained afterwards to her Channel 4 bosses.
asserted
she → tell → bosses
Brand was cleared by the jury of raping a woman at the Labour Party conference in 1999, after meeting them at the end of one of his cabaret shows.
asserted
Brand → clear → shows
He was also cleared of trying to indecently assault an MTV worker after dragging her towards a toilet at her workplace.
asserted
He → clear → workplace
Brand was sacked by MTV after mocking 9/11, he shot to fame through Channel 4’s Big Brother, landed his own BBC Radio 2 show, and went on to star alongside the likes of Tom Cruise, Mila Kunis, Jonah Hill, and Helen Mirren in Hollywood movies like Arthur, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and Rock Of Ages.
asserted
he → sack → Ages
He dabbled in left-wing politics as his stardom waned, reinvented himself as a wellness guru, and turned to podcasts focusing on alt-right talking points and conspiracy theories.
asserted
stardom → dabble → points
Brand’s treatments for alcohol, drug, and sex addiction were largely kept out of the trial, but the jury did hear from his former PA Helen Berger, who recalled him conducting interviews in his underpants, getting depressed after sex, and treating women poorly.
asserted
him → keep → women
She quit after growing “sick of him”, and told the court the team around Brand at the time were “normalising bad behaviour”.
asserted
team → quit → behaviour”
Brand denied all the charges against him, and suggested the whole case was a conspiracy cooked up by the media.
uncertain
case → deny → media
Asked in the witness box if he blames the media for his downfall, Brand replied: “In some ways”.
asserted
Brand → ask → ways”
But faced with the allegations against him, Brand could only insist that he values the idea of consent in sex while he struggled to remember the interactions with his accusers.
uncertain
he → face → accusers
Brand also packed his defence case with a series of arguments that the victims could not have been raped because they did not run away, fight back, or scream for help while being attacked.
uncertain
they → pack → help
…and 5 more, not listed.
The Aporia
