Comedian Russell Brand found guilty of rape and sexual assaults

British comedian and actor Russell Brand was found guilty in a London court on Thursday of rape and sexual assaults, and told he faces a lengthy jail sentence. Brand, once one of Britain’s most high-profile broadcasters and the former husband of US singer Katy Perry, had denied the accusations, saying the incidents had either been consensual, reinvented or re-imagined. Prosecutors had described the 51-year-old, who starred in the films “Get Him to the Greek” and “Arthur”, as a ruthless sexual predator. He was convicted at London’s Southwark Crown Court of one count of rape and three sexual assaults. He was acquitted of two other rape charges and an attempted indecent assault. Judge Joel Bennathan said he would be sentenced on Monday and faced a lengthy prison term. Brand was taken down to the cells ahead of a bail application at 1500 GMT. Prosecutors said the charges, between 1999 and 2009 spanned the years in which Brand rose from performing stand-up comedy in small venues to becoming a television presenter and Hollywood film star. The court heard tearful and forceful testimony from the six complainants, who are all entitled to lifelong anonymity. None of the women knew each other but all came forward to police in the wake of a TV documentary and press reports in 2023 in which anonymous allegations were made by other women. The most graphic evidence related to the rape for which he was convicted which took place in 2009, involving a victim who had met Brand after a gig where she had engaged in a sexual encounter in his dressing room. She recounted how days later she had gone to his home where during consensual sex, he had anally raped her. Afterwards he had told her to clear up the blood and mess, she said. He was convicted of sexual assaulting a woman at a London bar in 2004, when the victim said he had approached her at a party and grabbed her breasts. He was also found guilty over an incident in 2009 when he demanded a woman gave him a massage before he put his head between her legs as they worked on a promotion for a project, taking place in front of two of Brand’s colleagues. In 2004 or 2005, a woman working for a radio station said he had assaulted her during a frenzied attack in front of his entourage.