Russell Brand Sentenced to 10½ Years in Prison for Rape and Sexual Assault
A London judge called the comedian "a sexual predator" and ordered him to the cells after four women read victim impact statements in court.
British comedian Russell Brand was sentenced Monday to 10 years and six months in prison after a jury convicted him of rape and sexual assault. "The total sentence is one of ten years, six months," Justice Bennathan said at Southwark Crown Court in London, in a hearing that was broadcast live.
Brand, 51, was found guilty on Thursday of four of the seven counts he faced: one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault. Jurors convicted him of raping a woman he met at one of his shows in 2009. They also convicted him of sexually assaulting three other women, at a bar, a radio station and a television studio, between 2004 and 2009. Six women testified against him during the four-week trial, which drew heavy media attention. Brand has denied all the charges and has said he never had non-consensual sex.
Before the sentence was passed, four of the women gave victim impact statements. Three were read to the court by prosecutors, and one woman read her own from behind a curtain. None has been publicly named. The complainant in the rape case said in her statement: "It's something I carry with me every day and it often feels never-ending." She said she doubted her ability to make good decisions and no longer trusted her instincts, and that because of Brand's fame she had not believed she would be believed if she reported him.
A woman Brand was convicted of groping at a bar in 2004 said the confusion over what she should or could do had stayed with her for more than 20 years. She said she felt physically sick seeing him in the press as his fame grew. Another woman, assaulted in 2005, said hearing his voice or seeing his image on television had made her jump over the years. A fourth, who was assaulted while they worked together at a television studio, said she afterward felt her workplace was unsafe.
Prosecutors asked for a long sentence and pointed to aggravating factors in the rape case, including that Brand removed a condom. The defense argued that Brand was "a fundamentally different person" from the man he was when the crimes happened. British media in court reported that Brand, who had spent the weekend in prison, wore the same suit he was convicted in and held a set of white rosary beads while the statements were read. His wife, Laura, and his father were in court.
In his remarks, the judge said Brand had become "a sexual predator." He paused to pay tribute to the determination and bravery of the women who came forward, then ordered Brand taken down to the cells.
Brand rose from stand-up comedy and an MTV hosting job to fame in Britain in the early 2000s. He later reinvented himself as a political commentator admired by parts of Britain's left, and then as a conspiracy theorist and Christian convert with a large following on the American right. Critics said a thread of misogyny ran through his routines, and that his treatment of women had been an open secret for decades.
The sentence ends a case that began with a joint investigation into allegations from several women and played out in public over weeks of testimony. Brand's lawyers have not said whether he will appeal.
