Russell Brand due in court for sentencing over rape and sexual assault

Russell Brand, 51, is due to be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court this morning after a jury found him guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault against four women. Mr Justice Ben Nathan refused bail on Thursday and told him to expect a significant custodial term. Brand has been held in custody since then.

The jury of eight men and four women returned the verdicts after a four-week trial. Brand was cleared of two further rape charges and one attempted indecent assault. The allegations spanned 1999 to 2009. The rape conviction relates to a woman he met at a gig in 2009 and later invited to his Hampstead home. She said that during what began as consensual sex he forced a different sexual act on her and did not stop when she asked him to. The sexual assault convictions involved a woman at a radio station, a woman in a bar and a woman working on a TV project.

Brand denied non-consensual sex. In police interviews he said he had led a promiscuous life but had never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity. The Metropolitan Police and prosecutors described him as a calculated sexual predator who used his fame and power to exploit women. The Met said the verdicts showed that no one was above the law.

Police are investigating two further rape allegations against Brand. Channel 5 reported that one complainant was 16 at the time of the alleged offence and Brand was 30. The head of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Mark Rowley, said he would not be surprised if more people came forward, according to Channel 5. The force said its investigation remained ongoing.

The case has raised questions about the media and entertainment industry. Channel 4 reported that the BBC apologised again over its handling of complaints about Brand's conduct and said there could be no place for the abuse of power. Channel 4 also spoke to comedian Kate Smurthwaite, who said women in comedy had warned each other about Brand for years. BBC One reported that a 2025 BBC review examined eight allegations of misconduct while Brand worked there between 2006 and 2008. ITV reported that the prime minister described Brand's actions as horrifying and praised the bravery of the women who spoke out.

ITV also reported that the Victims' Commissioner, Claire Waxman, criticised Brand's defence counsel for using rape myths, including the suggestion that victims did not resist or try to leave. Ian Winter KC, Brand's defence barrister, referred himself to the barrister's regulator after an exchange with a journalist outside court, ITV reported. Sky News reported that the prime minister would look at changing how rape trials are handled so that women do not feel they are the ones on trial.

Sky News gave differing estimates of the likely sentence. Legal experts told it Brand could face six to nine years in prison, while its correspondent at court said four to 19 years was possible. The maximum sentence for rape is life.

BBC Two's Newsnight examined whether the media enabled Brand. Helena Kennedy, chair of the Creative Industries Standards Authority, said: 'You can't be unknowingly complicit.' Caroline Frost, an entertainment journalist who interviewed Brand several times, called the verdict 'the great come down' and 'the day of reckoning'.

GB News reported that Michelle Donelan, former Conservative culture secretary, said companies that worked with Brand should investigate who knew what. BBC News reported that Deniz Uygur of the End Violence Against Women Coalition said rape is always about a perpetrator choosing to abuse their power.