Russell Brand convicted of rape and sexual assault at Southwark trial
Seven Lights
Russell Brand was convicted Thursday of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault at the conclusion of a three-week trial at Southwark Crown Court in London. The jury, deliberating for more than nine hours, acquitted the 51-year-old comedian and actor on two further counts of rape and one count of attempted indecent assault.
Judge Joel Bennathan, delivering the seven verdicts to a silent courtroom, told Brand the convictions carried a “significant custodial term” and remanded him into custody, refusing bail. Sentence is due Monday.
The charges traced to a joint investigation published in 2023 by The Times, The Sunday Times and Channel 4, in which four women said Brand had assaulted them in separate incidents between 1999 and 2005. Brand was charged in April 2025 and pleaded not guilty; additional counts were added later from two further complainants. One indecent assault allegation fell before the jury deliberated, the judge directing an acquittal for insufficient evidence.
The court heard allegations spanning a decade: an encounter in which a complainant said Brand raped her at his home days after a sexual encounter in a dressing room; a sexual assault at a bar in 2004; an incident in 2009 in which, the prosecution said, Brand demanded a massage during work on a promotional project; and an allegation that he grabbed a woman’s breasts at a party in front of two of his colleagues. Brand, who took the stand in late October, denied all the charges, expressed regret for his past behavior toward women and said consent was central to him. He also testified that the media had treated him unfairly.
The Metropolitan Police said after the verdict that Brand had become the subject of a further investigation into rape allegations made by two other women, and that files in that matter had been submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service. The investigation is ongoing.
The convictions end a case that had shadowed Brand’s public life since the 2023 reporting, during which he was dropped by professional partners and mounted a public defense of his conduct. Sentencing on Monday will fix the custodial term the judge has signaled.