British comedian and actor Russell Brand was sentenced in London on Monday to 10 years and six months in prison for raping one woman and sexually assaulting three others during his rise to fame.
Brand, now 51, was convicted by a jury in a London court last week of raping a 21-year-old woman in 2009 and of sexually assaulting three other women during the 2000s, CNN reported. He was acquitted of two further counts of rape and one count of attempted indecent assault.
The judge’s remarks
Judge Joel Bennathan opened his sentencing remarks by telling Brand he had “become a sexual predator” as he rose to prominence two decades ago.
“You were clever – and in many people’s eyes, funny and charismatic. You had also become a sexual predator.”
The judge went on to tell 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.”
Brand, who for years made his sexual history a staple of his public persona, showed no emotion as the sentence was delivered, according to Britain’s Press Association. He told his wife, Laura Gallacher, “we’ll be OK,” and the two spoke briefly before he was led away. He is a father of three.
How the case began
The charges related to a period running from 1999 and through the following decade, as Brand moved from unknown stand-up and underground presenter to one of the most recognisable faces on British television.
Detectives began examining his conduct after several women came forward following a 2023 joint investigation by The Times, The Sunday Times and Channel 4, in which he was accused of sexual abuse. Those accusers were different from the six women who gave evidence at his trial, and Brand has denied wrongdoing in relation to those earlier allegations.
During the four-week trial Brand accepted that he had been highly promiscuous, but maintained that every encounter was consensual. Prosecutors argued he had been calculating and relentless in pursuit of a personal goal to sleep with thousands of women.
This sentencing follows the guilty verdicts reported on 5 November.
A note on one source’s headline
Hiru News carried this story in Sinhala, and its report of the charge is accurate — it states the conviction was for ස්ත්රී දූෂණයක් සහ ලිංගික අතවර, rape and sexual assault. Its automatically generated English URL slug, however, renders the offence as “corruption.” The Sinhala word දූෂණ carries both senses, and the wrong one was selected in translation. The offence is rape and sexual assault, as confirmed by CNN and by Hiru’s own Sinhala text.
