london —
British actor, comedian and media personality Russell Brand faces a lengthy prison sentence after being found guilty in a London court on Thursday of raping a young fan and sexually assaulting three women.
The 51-year-old brand was found guilty of raping a 21-year-old fan after they met at one of his shows in west London in 2009. He was also found guilty of molesting an MTV employee in a central London bar in 2004, of kissing and molesting another woman at work in 2005, and of sexually assaulting another woman in 2009 after he was forced to give her a massage.
At Southwark Crown Court on Thursday, a jury of eight men and four women acquitted Starr of two counts of rape and one count of attempted indecent assault after deliberating for about eight-and-a-half hours.
After handing down the verdict, Judge Joel Bennathan said the case had been “extremely well prepared”, adding that sentencing would take place on Monday, according to the British Press Association (PA).
Bland stood erect and motionless in court until the verdict was announced, closing her eyes when she heard she had been found guilty of rape, but she was remanded in custody. “The result will inevitably be the imposition of a significant period of custody,” Benathan said.
Before entering the courtroom to hear the verdict, Brando told his wife, Laura Gallacher, an author and illustrator who had been in attendance throughout the courtroom with her husband, “I love you.”
Brand, who was previously married to American pop star Katy Perry, “used his influence, position and fame to exploit women and commit sexual offenses,” the Metropolitan Police said in a statement following the comedian’s conviction.
Superintendent Andy Furphy said in a statement: “As his profile has grown, so has his awareness of his rights. I hope this conviction sends a clear message that no one, no matter how famous or powerful, is above the law.”
The Met also confirmed that investigations into two other rape allegations against Brando continue, according to the PA news agency.
Speaking outside court, David Roberts, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said the evidence showed Brand was a “calculating sexual predator who used his growing fame and power to create situations in which he could sexually pursue women regardless of their wishes”.
Whistleblowers claim brand transformed during alleged attack
Mr Brand’s accusers have appeared in court over the past three weeks, giving emotional accounts of how Mr Brand forced them to perform sex acts at a time when he was rising to fame as one of Britain’s best-known stand-up comedians and TV presenters.
Detectives began investigating the comedian in 2023 after he was brought up in a joint investigation by three British media outlets – The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches. The brand also denied these allegations regarding multiple women who were not involved in the criminal trial.
According to the Metropolitan Police Department, after the investigation results were made public, a number of women who did not know each other came forward to report the brand to police officers.
During the trial, prosecutors argued that Bland was a “sex offender” who was pursuing a mission to have sex with 5,000 women. Ms Brand admitted she was obsessed with sex at the time, but said consent in sex was “fundamental”.
The trial against Brand began in London in mid-October. One of the claimants told the court how the pair met after a gig at the Hammersmith Apollo in 2009. She said the two had a consensual threesome at the venue before going to his townhouse a few days later for sex. But the second encounter turned into rape, she said, when he forced her to have anal sex and ignored her pleas to stop.
The woman said she became addicted to alcohol after the incident. One friend described her as a “bright, cheerful and confident girl”, but added: “This experience has definitely changed her,” PA said.
Another woman told the court that after a man groped her at a party in Soho, central London, in 2004, she “felt embarrassed” and the comedian acted “as if nothing had happened”.
Brando began his showbiz career as a stand-up comedian, drawing on his own experiences with illegal drug and sex addictions in his performances. He rose to fame in the UK in the early 2000s as the host of “Celebrity Big Brother Big Mouth,” a spin-off of “Celebrity Big Brother.”
Brando’s chaotic energy, unfiltered words, and provocative jokes made him a popular and polarizing figure in pop culture, polarizing public opinion on whether they loved or hated what he did. In 2001, he was fired from MTV UK after coming to work dressed as Osama bin Laden two days after the September 11 terrorist attacks. He later blamed his actions on an addiction to crack cocaine and heroin. Brand entered rehab in 2002 and has remained sober ever since.
In 2006, he moved to mainstream radio on BBC Radio 2’s ‘The Russell Brand Show’. He had candid, comedic, and often X-rated conversations with his co-hosts and guests on his weekly Saturday night show.
But the popular radio show abruptly ended two years later when Brando quit after a sexist and misogynistic audio message to Fawlty Towers star Andrew Sachs was broadcast, sparking outrage and breaching British broadcasting regulations.
However, the scandal did not stop the brand’s rise to global stardom. He then appeared in several Hollywood films, including “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “Get Him to the Greek.” He was married to American pop star Perry from 2010 to 2012.
Over the past decade, the brand has shed its eccentric, sex-positive image and begun producing podcasts about spirituality, meditation, and yoga. In 2017, he wrote the self-help guide “Recovery: Freeing Our Addictions,” while his performances moved from theater stages to wellness gatherings. That same year, he married Gallacher and they had three children.
Since the coronavirus pandemic, he has gained a cult following online, with more than 6.6 million subscribers to his YouTube channel and show on new platform Rumble. While living in Florida, he became a born-again Christian and published a book about his conversion in 2026 through a new memoir by conservative commentator Tucker Carlson.
