Russell Brand has been found guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault
Warning: This article contains discussion of rape and sexual assault which some readers may find distressing.
The verdict for the charges Russell Brand was facing in the UK has been revealed after a month-long trial.
Brand has been found not guilty of raping a woman he met at a cabaret show on the fringes of the 1999 Labour Party conference in Bournemouth, UK.
He was also found not guilty of trying to drag an MTV worker in to a toilet to indecently assault her in 2001.
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The Forgetting Sarah Marshall actor is guilty of groping another MTV worker during a party at a Soho bar in 2004 – but not guilty of going on to orally rape her in a toilet.
Jurors then said that they had found Brand guilty of sexually assaulting a Capital Radio worker after encountering her in a corridor in 2005.
In addition to this, Brand was found guilty of raping a 21-year-old fan after meeting her at a 2009 stand-up show at the Hammersmith Apollo.
Lastly he was found guilty of sexually assaulting a Channel 4 worker during a forced massage in 2009.
Shortly before the verdict was read out, Brand looked at his wife Laura Gallacher, saying: "Laura, I love you."
The pair married in August 2017 and share three kids together, two daughters and a son.
The judge told Brand the consequence of the verdict comes with a 'significant custodial term'. He is expected to be sentenced on Monday (November 9).
Justice Bennathan said: "You’ve been convicted of a number of offences including rape. The consequence of that is inevitably a significant custodial term.
"My current view is that I therefore have to remand you into custody."
What was Russell Brand accused of?
Brand was facing seven different criminal charges: three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one of attempted indecent assault. He denied all of them and insisted in court that any sexual encounters he had were consensual.
The allegations took place over a 10-year period at the height of Brand's career.
What his lawyer said about each allegation
Ian Winter KC said that public opinion against Brand had been 'perverted and corrupted' after the publication of an article in The Times and The Sunday Times, and the Channel 4 Dispatches programme.
Alleged victims say Brand switched suddenly after appearing charming, forced them into sexual activity in a toilet, a hotel room, workplace corridors and his bedroom, and acted as if nothing had happened after the attacks.
Here is what his barrister has said in response to each of the allegations he was facing.
Labour party conference
A woman who attended the 1999 Labour party conference claimed Brand raped her in a hotel room after she had watched him perform in a cabaret show.
Of the woman, Winter said she 'fancied him' and 'invited him back to her tiny bedsit, and she consented to the sex that took place there'.
Referring to her evidence about him wearing budgie smugglers and jumping around like an ostrich, he said this memory is 'entirely false', adding that there are no photos of him 'prancing around in his underpants'.
He referred to the woman keeping a photograph of Brand blowing her a kiss and said that her conduct was 'completely inconsistent with the allegation she has made for the first time 24 years later'.
Winter went on to discuss her evidence in a video-recorded interview that Brand 'didn’t try to please me much' and said: "That is not the way one describes a rapist."
The barrister then invited jurors to believe there is 'no evidential basis making you sure that Brand raped her'.
MTV offices
An MTV worker gave evidence that Brand tried to drag her into a toilet at the central London offices where she worked in 2001.
Winter said Brand 'accepted' the woman’s 'no' and so he 'didn’t attempt to assault her into the bathroom'.
The barrister said that prosecutors could not 'even put to Brand anything about what he was intending to do', adding: "They had no idea."
He went on to say that 'the well has been poisoned and she now generally believes she could have been assaulted in the bathroom'.
Soho bar
Brand had been accused of groping a woman during a birthday party at a Soho bar, then dragging her to the toilet and forcing her to perform oral sex on him.
His barrister referred to the fact the woman did not tell anyone that Brand had allegedly grabbed her breasts or orally raped her until September 2023.
Winter said the Dispatches programme would have caused her to think about her encounter with Brand.
He said it is 'inconceivable' the woman chose to go into Brand’s car after the alleged incident, telling jurors: "How remotely possible is it that if you had just been raped on the mouth you would get into your assailant’s car?"
Radio station
One of the staffers at Choice FM in London told the court she was pinned against a wall, groped and subjected to 'sloppy' kisses by Brand in 2005.
During his speech, Winter said that her allegations are 'akin to a maniac jumping on you as you come out of a place or workplace'.
He went on to ask jurors 'who would not complain about that conduct?', and said the woman said 'nothing to anybody at all for 19 years'.
The barrister said: "How is it remotely possible that in all the years of this incredible fame, his marriage to Katy Perry, that you never mentioned he jumped on you like a maniac behind the bins?"
Hammersmith Apollo
Brand was accused of raping a 21-year-old fan a few days after they met at his 2009 stand-up comedy show at the Hammersmith Apollo in west London.
Winter said that she 'completely understood what sort of sex would happen or what he would want to happen when she went to his house'.
The barrister also said that the woman’s 'fan obsession' with Brand had 'totally clouded her judgment and caused her to behave in a way that was completely out of character' after watching him perform.
He said that she went to his house, consented and 'wished and wished and wished she hadn’t done'.
Channel 4 massage
The final allegation against Brand was that he put his head into a woman’s lap when she had been forced to give him a massage in 2009.
Winter said that 'unless the sexual breathing element of this offence' could be proved, 'it’s just a massage'.
He added that it was a 'thoroughly inappropriate one, one that shouldn’t happen in the workplace, but not a sexual one'.
If you've been affected by any of the issues in this article, you can contact The National Sexual Assault Hotline on 800.656.HOPE (4673), available 24/7. Or you can chat online via online.rainn.org.
Topics: Russell Brand, Celebrity, UK News, Court, Crime
Niamh Shackleton
