Russell Brand convicted of raping one woman and sexually assaulting three others, faces sentencing in London

The Story

Russell Brand, 51, was found guilty of attacking four of six accusers in a series of sexual offence cases dating back to 2004, and faces a significant prison term at his sentencing hearing Monday in London.

The jury found him guilty of raping one woman and sexually assaulting three others. He was cleared of two counts of rape and one count of attempted indecent assault.

Brand told the court he was innocent and said all of the encounters were consensual.

Prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones described Brand as a “sexual predator” who treated women as a “disposable commodity,” and quoted from Brand’s 2007 memoir, “My Booky Wook,” to support the case for how his approach to sex was portrayed at trial.

Among the offences that were considered by the jury, Brand was convicted of sexually assaulting a woman during a birthday party at a London bar in 2004, after which he was also acquitted of orally raping her in a restroom.

The jury also found him guilty of kissing and groping another woman at a London radio station in 2004 or 2005, and of anally raping a fan at his home after meeting her backstage at one of his comedy shows in 2009.

The final conviction was for sexually assaulting a different woman, who testified that Brand demanded a massage and pressed his face into her groin during the recording of an advertisement in 2009.

Brand was acquitted of raping another woman in a hotel room during the Labour Party’s annual conference in Bournemouth in 1999, and of attempting to indecently assault a woman by dragging her into the men’s bathroom at the London office of music channel MTV.