NEED TO KNOW
- Russell Brand has been sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison after being found guilty of rape and three counts of sexual assault.
- Judge Joel Bennathan described Brand as “a sexual predator” and criticised his “staggering arrogance” during sentencing.
- The charges related to four women with the incidents occurring between 2004 and 2009. Brand was acquitted of two further counts of rape and one count of attempted indecent assault.
- Brand’s wife, Laura Brand, stood by him throughout the trial. The couple married in 2017 and share three young children.
- Brand’s former partner, Jemima Goldsmith, has since shared her own allegations of violence, coercive control and abuse on X.
- Katy Perry, who was married to Brand for just over a year, was omitted from opening statements due to their relationship being irrelevant to the charges.
Content Warning: This story contains references to and descriptions of domestic violence and assault.
Russell Brand has been sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison for rape and sexual assaults.
Judge Joel Bennathan handed down the sentence at Southwark Crown Court in London on Monday (approximately 1.30am Tuesday AEDT), describing Brand as “a sexual predator” who told a “series of lies” and exhibited “staggering arrogance.”
In a particularly stirring moment, Bennathan addressed the issue of consent, telling the court: “Whatever women wear, wherever they go, indeed whatever they drink, they retain the right to say no and to demand justice from the criminal courts when sexual predators like you, Russell Brand, act without their consent.”
One of the victims, who read her victim impact statement from behind a screen to ensure anonymity, spoke about the lasting impact of Brand’s crimes.
“That undeserved feeling of shame and what if I’d done this or done that has been carried around inside me for over 20 years,” she told the court.
“For many years, as his star was rising, it was impossible to escape seeing him all over the media, being celebrated for his disgusting behaviour against women like it was all a joke, and there were many times I felt visibly sick at the sight of him parading around thinking he can get away with anything.”
Brand’s sentencing follows a three-and-a-half-week trial and eight-and-a-half hours of jury deliberations. On Thursday, November 5, the jury returned a split verdict, finding Brand guilty on four of the seven charges, according to the BBC.
The 51-year-old British comedian had faced three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one count of attempted indecent assault relating to six women in the UK between 1999 and 2009. During the trial, BBC reported that Brand was described as a “ruthless rapist and manipulative sex offender.”
The jury found him guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault, but acquitted on the two other rape counts and one of attempted indecent assault. He had denied all offences.
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What Was Russell Brand Found Guilty Of?
The rape count related to a young fan he met at his stand-up show at the Hammersmith Apollo in 2009. Brand invited the woman, who was more than a decade younger than him, to his dressing room where she performed oral sex on him and had a threesome with another fan. A few days later, Brand sent a chauffeur to bring the woman to his London home where they had consensual vaginal sex, reports BBC.
While in bed, Brand flipped her over and anally raped her so violently that she says “couldn’t speak or breathe”, reports The Hollywood Reporter. When she was finally able to speak, she says she told him repeatedly to stop. When Brand finished a few minutes later, she says he looked “horrified”, and told her: “You need to clear up the mess you made”.
One of the sexual assaults he was found guilty of was grabbing a victim’s breasts at a bar in Soho in 2004. The second guilty finding related to an incident in 2004 or 2005 at Capital Radio where he pushed a victim against a wall, kissing her and grabbing her body “aggressively”. The third guilty finding was when he put his head and nose in the “vaginal area” of a female colleague in 2009.
Brand’s wife, Laura, with whom he has three children, told the court during the trial that he is a “caring and kind, wonderful father” and that she feels “very seen by him”. The Guardian reports that, shortly before the jury delivered its verdicts, Brand looked at Laura and said, “Laura, I love you.”
Who Is Russell Brand’s Wife, Laura Brand?
Laura Brand (née Gallacher), has stood by her husband throughout his trial. The couple wed in 2017 and share three children, born in 2016, 2018 and 2023. They reportedly first met in 2007, when Laura was 19 and Russell was 30, after being introduced through Laura’s sister, sports commentator Kirsty Gallacher.
According to The Guardian, Laura told the court during Brand’s trial that their initial relationship didn’t last as it was “difficult for [Russell]to be monogamous”. He famously went on to marry pop star Katy Perry following his split with Laura. However, Brand and Perry divorced in 2012, and he returned to the UK, later dating Jemima Goldsmith. By 2015, both Brand and Laura had recently separated from their respective partners when they unexpectedly crossed paths again.
Reflecting on their reunion to Grazia, Laura said, “My ex had literally moved out of our flat that day and I was heartbroken, with mascara running down my face. A friend dragged me out on a walk to the canal in east London, where I’d never been in my life, and as we came on to the footpath Russell was standing there, like he’d organised it.”
The couple wed in an intimate Church ceremony in 2017 near their home in Oxfordshire. According to People, Laura studied art at university before working in hospitality, eventually pursuing a career in publishing and illustration.
Beyond their family life, Russell and Laura previously ran a charity together, The Stay Free Foundation, which supported people experiencing addiction and mental health issues. Brand’s defence lawyer, Ian Winter, urged the judge to consider Brand’s charitable work when considering his sentencing.
What Is Russell Brand’s Prison Sentence & How Much Of It Will He Serve?
Russell Brand has been sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison. He received a nine-year sentence for raping a 21-year-old woman in 2009, alongside three additional sentences for sexually assaulting three other women during his rise to fame. Brand was acquitted of two further counts of rape and one count of attempted indecent assault.
The three sentences for sexual assault will run concurrently with one another, but consecutively to the nine-year rape sentence. Judge Joel Bennathan outlined the sexual assault sentences as follows:
- Count three: Nine months in prison.
- Count five: 18 months in prison.
- Count seven: Eight months in prison.
In the UK, offenders who are sentenced to four years or more can be released at the two thirds point, which, for Brand, will mean at least seven years behind bars.
What Has Russel Brand’s Ex-Partner Jemima Goldsmith Said?
Following his divorce from Katy Perry, Brand dated Jemima Goldsmith for approximately a year in 2013-2014. After his sentencing was delivered, Goldsmith took to X to discuss her own experience with her ex, who she alleges she has not spoken to since 2014.
“I am in awe of the courageous women who came forward at Brand’s trial, told their stories, testified and ensured justice was done. I have had my own personal experience of his violence, coercive control and abuse,” she wrote. “Over several years, I assisted the journalists who finally exposed him; Ros Urwin, Louisa Compton and Dorothy Byrne. I also undertook to testify in court to his abusiveness, if the newspaper that published the victims’ accounts were ever to be sued.”
She concluded, “I am glad and relieved that Russell Brand has finally faced justice.”
Goldsmith’s comments highlighted her involvement in the investigation that brought the allegations against Brand into the public eye. In 2023, a joint endeavour by The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches revealed the allegations of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse made by multiple women.
In April 2024, several months after the allegations were made public, Brand announced that he had converted to Christianity. He subsequently embarked on a series of interviews, largely with right-wing commentators, in which he discussed his newfound faith and beliefs.
Russell Brand’s Marriage To Katy Perry
According to a 2011 article by The Guardian, Russel Brand proposed to Katy Perry on New Year’s Eve in India, with the couple confirming their engagement in January, 2010. Brand and Perry had only been dating for several months when they became engaged, and they tied the knot soon after in October 2010.
While the couple never released pictures from their ceremony, the wedding reportedly took place in Rajasthan, India. Perry later told Vanity Fair in 2011 that, “the press is just not your friend when it comes to a marriage…that’s why we didn’t sell the pictures of our wedding, and we got offered millions of dollars for them, millions.”
Two months into their marriage Brand revealed to Ellen DeGeneres on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, that he was “really happily married”. However in December, 2011, just over a year after their nuptials, he announced he and Katy had split.
In a 2013 interview with Vogue, Perry spoke of the breakdown of their relationship, saying while Brand was “a magical man” when they met, their connection soon faltered.
“He’s a very smart man, and I was in love with him when I married him,” Perry told Vogue. “Let’s just say I haven’t heard from him since he texted me saying he was divorcing me December 31, 2011.”
She continued, “At first when I met him he wanted an equal, and I think a lot of times strong men do want an equal, but then they get that equal and they’re like, I can’t handle the equalness. He didn’t like the atmosphere of me being the boss on tour. So that was really hurtful, and it was very controlling, which was upsetting. I felt a lot of responsibility for it ending, but then I found out the real truth, which I can’t necessarily disclose because I keep it locked in my safe for a rainy day. I let go and I was like: This isn’t because of me; this is beyond me. So I have moved on from that.”
Perry has not made a statement on Brand’s sentencing.
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