Russell Brand guilty of rape and three sexual assaults; sentencing Monday
A jury at Southwark Crown Court found Russell Brand guilty on Thursday of one count of rape and three of sexual assault, and cleared him of two further rapes and one attempted indecent assault, after eight and a half hours of deliberation. The judge, Mr Justice Bennathan, said a conviction for rape meant “inevitably a significant custodial term” and remanded him in custody until sentencing on Monday. The Metropolitan Police are investigating allegations from two more women.
The rape conviction concerned a young fan Brand picked from the crowd after a Hammersmith Apollo show in early 2009 and attacked at his London house; the sexual assaults were on an MTV employee at a party in 2004, a woman working at Choice FM in 2004 or 2005, and a Channel 4 worker during filming in 2009. He was acquitted of raping a woman after the 1999 Labour conference in Bournemouth and of attempting to assault an MTV worker in 2001. Refusing bail, the judge said there were “substantial grounds to fear he might in the end not feel able to come along and face his sentence”. The prosecutor, Riel Karmy-Jones KC, had told the jury: “His eyes changed, he snapped, from charming to frightening to nasty.” The CPS called him “a calculated sexual predator”; the Met’s Det Supt Andy Furphy said Brand “used his influence, status and fame to exploit and sexually offend against women” and that “no-one is above the law”. The six complainants, who did not know one another, have lifelong anonymity. Channel 4 praised their “extraordinary courage”; the BBC, which employed Brand from 2006 to 2008, had not commented by evening.