Russell Brand has been found guilty of rape and three counts of sexual assault following a trial in which six women came forward with allegations of sexual abuse dating back more than two decades. The British comedian and actor was convicted Thursday, November 5, at Southwark Crown Court in London. The jury acquitted him of two other rape charges and one count of attempted indecent assault.
The verdicts followed more than two days of jury deliberations. Brand, 51, was remanded into custody after the convictions. Judge Mr Justice Joel Bennathan told him that the outcome meant he was facing a significant prison sentence. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for Monday, November 9.
The allegations involved six women and incidents said to have occurred between 1999 and 2009, during a period when Brand was becoming a major name in British entertainment. He denied all seven charges throughout the trial. His defense maintained that the sexual encounters were consensual or that the women’s accounts did not accurately describe what happened.
One of the sexual assault convictions involved a woman who worked at MTV. She told the court that Brand grabbed her breasts during a birthday party at London’s Nordic Bar in 2004. The jury found him guilty of that assault but cleared him of a separate allegation that he orally raped the same woman in a restroom at the bar.
Another conviction concerned a woman who worked at a radio station in 2004 or 2005. She testified that Brand grabbed her, pushed her against a wall and kissed her aggressively. Brand denied the allegation, but the jury found him guilty of sexually assaulting her.
The rape conviction involved a woman Brand met backstage after a stand-up performance at the Hammersmith Apollo in 2009. She told the court that she went to his London home, where they initially had consensual vaginal sex. However, she alleged that Brand later penetrated her anally without her consent and removed his condom. Brand maintained that the encounter was consensual.
A fourth guilty verdict involved a former Channel 4 employee who described an incident at work in 2009. She told the court that Brand demanded a massage and then put his head between her legs, bringing his mouth and nose close to her genital area. Brand said he could not remember the incident.
Not every allegation resulted in a conviction. The jury found Brand not guilty of raping a woman he met around the 1999 Labour Party Conference. She had accused him of pushing her onto a hotel bed and raping her after she invited him to her room. Brand maintained that their encounter was consensual.
He was also acquitted of attempting to pull a former MTV employee into a toilet at the network’s London offices in 2001. The judge had earlier reduced the original indecent assault charge to attempted indecent assault because of insufficient evidence to support the original allegation. Brand said he did not remember the incident but denied attempting to assault the woman.
The six women came forward after allegations against Brand appeared in a 2023 Channel 4 documentary and reports published by The Times. Their identities remain protected under lifelong legal anonymity. Three of the women involved in the sexual assault convictions had worked in television or radio, including at MTV and Channel 4.
During the trial, Brand’s defense argued that the documentary had “poisoned the well of justice” by influencing the women and their accounts. Prosecutors rejected that argument. They said the program encouraged women who had carried their experiences for years to speak to the authorities, rather than creating or changing their allegations.
The case covered a period when Brand moved from stand-up comedy into television, radio and film. He later appeared in movies including Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him to the Greek. He was also previously married to singer Katy Perry. His convictions now leave him facing a prison sentence, with the judge making clear that a significant period in custody is expected.