Russell Brand Sentencing: Judge Due to Rule Monday After Verdict
Comedian Russell Brand, 51, is due to be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court in London on Monday from 10am GMT after being convicted of one count of rape and three of sexual assault. The judge has warned of a significant custodial term.
Comedian and actor Russell Brand, 51, is due to be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court in London on Monday from 10am GMT, in a Russell Brand sentencing hearing that ends a four-week trial of a once-celebrated celebrity. A jury convicted him of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault.
Judge Joel Bennathan, formally Mr Justice Bennathan, told Brand after the verdict that he faced a "significant custodial term." He added: "The consequence of that is inevitably a significant custodial term."
What the jury decided
The trial examined seven historic charges brought by six women. Jurors of eight men and four women took around nine hours to reach verdicts on all seven allegations.
They found Brand guilty of raping a woman who had been to one of his comedy shows in 2009. They also convicted him of sexually assaulting three other women between 2004 and 2009, in a bar, a radio station and a TV studio.
He was acquitted of two counts of rape and one count of attempted indecent assault. Brand denied all charges and said he never had sex without consent.
How long could he be jailed?
The maximum sentence for rape is life in prison. According to Sentencing Council guidelines, custodial terms for rape range from four to 19 years depending on the circumstances. Sexual assault carries a range from a community order up to 10 years.
Danny Shaw, a crime commentator and former BBC correspondent, said on X that 10 years is the average rape sentence and that Brand was likely to receive between four and 13 years.
Because Brand was convicted of several offenses, the judge must apply a totality principle, reflecting all the offending together. Sentences can run concurrently, at the same time, or consecutively, one after the other. The jury was told Brand is of "previous good character" and was instructed to ignore a 30-year-old cannabis possession conviction.
Prison and reaction
Brand's lawyer asked for bail after the verdict so he could spend the weekend with his three children. The judge refused, and Brand spent his first weekend in a prison cell in London.
Where he serves any sentence will be decided by Ministry of Justice prison service staff. Men's prisons are rated from category A, the highest security, to D, open prisons. High-profile inmates are sometimes held in vulnerable prisoner units or segregated wings.
He showed little emotion as the verdicts were read. His wife, Laura, who has supported him throughout, quickly left the courtroom.
London police detective Andy Furphy said Brand had "used his influence, status and fame to prey on women — as his profile grew, so too did his sense of entitlement."
Camilla Long, a journalist for The Sunday Times, wrote that hearing how Brand "grabbed, pushed, groped and degraded his victims, was one of the most disgusting experiences of my life." She added: "Never has a predator so loudly declared himself, yet been so roundly ignored."
Brand also faces an allegation in the United States. In 2023, a woman identified only as Jane Doe accused him of sexually assaulting her while she worked as a film extra on the 2010 comedy movie "Arthur."
