After Four Women’s Accounts, Russell Brand Sentenced to 10 Years in Jail for Rape, Sexual Assault

Sentence follows four convictions

Judge Justice Bennathan announced the total sentence at Southwark Crown Court on Monday. Brand, 51, was convicted last week on four of seven counts. The convictions were for raping a woman he had met at one of his shows in 2009 and sexually assaulting three women. The assaults took place at a bar, a radio station and a television studio between 2004 and 2009.

Women describe lasting effects

Four women gave victim impact statements before the sentence was handed down. Prosecutors read three statements, while one woman spoke in court from behind a curtain. The woman Brand was convicted of raping said the experience remained with her every day and could feel unending. She also said she questioned her decisions and instincts, and had feared that his celebrity would make others doubt her account.

A woman who was assaulted at a bar in 2004 said she had struggled for more than 20 years with uncertainty about what she should or could do. She described feeling physically sick when she later saw Brand in the press as his fame grew.

Private trial drew attention

Six women testified over four weeks in the London trial, which attracted extensive media coverage. The trial was not televised, and none of the women was publicly identified.

Brand became known as a comedian and MTV host before moving into political commentary and later becoming a conspiracy theorist and Christian convert. Critics said misogyny had been a persistent element of his comedy and that his treatment of women had been an open secret.