Russell Brand guilty of rape and sexual assaults during showbiz career
Brand, now 51, preyed on women he encountered while becoming one of Britain’s best-known stand-up comedians, a lauded TV and radio host, and a Hollywood movie star.
asserted
he → prey → comedians
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.
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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.
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who → give → defence
On Thursday, a jury found Brand guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault.
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Brand → find → assault
He was cleared of two further charges of rape and one allegation of attempted indecent assault.
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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.
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verdict → display → charge
He loudly replied “yes My Lord” when he was remanded into custody, having been told he will receive a lengthy sentence.
Ms Gallacher was seen to hunch over in the public gallery when Brand was told he now faces an inevitable prison term.
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he → reply → term
His barrister, Ian Winter KC, made a plea for Brand to be given bail over the weekend as an “act of humanity” so that he could say goodbye to his children, but the judge refused over fears that he would flee instead of returning to court.
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he → make → court
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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.
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he → read → rapist
Detective Superintendent Andy Furphy, who led the Metropolitan Police investigation, paid tribute to the “extraordinary courage, resilience and determination” of the women who spoke out against Brand.
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who → lead → Brand
He said: “Despite intense media and public scrutiny, they relived deeply personal and traumatic experiences and placed their trust in us.
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they → say → us
“Brand used his influence, status and fame to prey on and exploit women.
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Brand → use → women
As his profile grew, so too did his sense of entitlement.
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sense → grow → entitlement
I hope this conviction sends a clear message that no one is above the law, no matter how famous or powerful they may be.”
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they → hope → law
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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it → tell → mine
“I just thought the odds weren’t in my favour.”
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odds → think → favour
A 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Women were a “disposable commodity” to Brand, said prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones KC, who dubbed him a “sexual predator”.
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who → tell → him
“They didn’t matter to him.
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They → matter → him
He didn’t even need to know their names.
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He → need → names
The 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”.
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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.
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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.
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she → agree → body
“I was so repulsed by the situation”, she told the court, and said she complained afterwards to her Channel 4 bosses.
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she → repulse → 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.
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Brand → clear → shows
He was also cleared of trying to indecently assault an MTV worker after dragging her towards a toilet at her workplace.
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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.
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.
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.
She quit after growing “sick of him”, and told the court the team around Brand at the time were “normalising bad behaviour”.
Brand denied all the charges against him, and suggested the whole case was a conspiracy cooked up by the media.
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case → sack → media
Asked in the witness box if he blames the media for his downfall, Brand replied: “In some ways.”
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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.
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he → face → accusers
…and 5 more, not listed.
The Aporia
