Russell Brand, once one of Britain’s most high profile broadcasters and a star of several Hollywood films, was convicted at Southwark Crown Court in London on Thursday of raping a woman and sexually assaulting three more. The jury found him guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault committed between 2004 and 2009, and acquitted him of two other rape charges and an attempted indecent assault. He had faced seven charges involving six women and pleaded not guilty to all of them, maintaining the encounters were consensual.
The rape conviction concerned a woman he met at a stand up show at the Hammersmith Apollo in 2009. The assault convictions included groping a woman at a party in a Soho bar in 2004 and assaults on women at a radio station and during a promotional recording. The jury of four women and eight men deliberated for more than eight hours after a trial of about four weeks that began in mid October.
Judge Joel Bennathan refused bail and told Brand, 51, that a lengthy prison term would follow. Sentencing is set for Monday, November 9. Prosecutors told the jury that Brand was obsessed with sex and used women to satisfy his own desires, a characterisation his defence rejected throughout.
Metropolitan Police detectives began investigating Brand in 2023 after allegations were reported by Channel 4, The Times and The Sunday Times. He was charged in April 2025. Police said after the verdict that he remains under investigation for two other alleged rapes, one involving a girl who was 16 at the time, and that files have been submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service. Those allegations have not been tried. Status: verdict delivered, sentencing pending.