Actor and comedian Russell Brand found guilty of rape and sexual assault

By Lauren Said-Moorhouse, CNN

London (CNN) — British actor, comedian and media personality Russell Brand faces a lengthy prison sentence after he was found guilty in a London court on Thursday of raping a young fan and sexually assaulting three women.

Brand, 51, was convicted of raping the 21-year-old admirer in 2009 after they met at one of his shows in west London. He was also found guilty of groping an MTV worker at a bar in central London in 2004, kissing and groping another woman at her workplace in 2005 and sexually assaulting another woman in 2009 when she was forced to give him a massage.

At Southwark Crown Court on Thursday, a jury of eight men and four women cleared the star of two separate charges of rape and one count of attempted indecent assault, after deliberating for around eight and a half hours.

Speaking after the verdicts were delivered, judge Joel Bennathan said the case was “very well prepared,” according to Britain’s Press Association (PA), adding that sentencing would take place on Monday.

Brand, who stood straight in the dock as the verdicts were revealed and closed his eyes as he heard he was found guilty of rape, has been remanded in custody. “The consequence of that is inevitably a significant custodial term,” Bennathan said.

Brand said “I love you” to his wife Laura Gallacher, an author and illustrator who consistently attended court with her husband, before he entered the dock to hear the verdicts.

Brand, who was previously married to US pop star Katy Perry, “used his influence, status and fame to exploit and sexually offend against women,” London’s Metropolitan Police Service said following the comedian’s conviction.

“As his profile grew, so too did his sense of entitlement. I hope this conviction sends a clear message that no one is above the law, no matter how famous or powerful they may be,” Detective Superintendent Andy Furphy said in a statement.

The Met also confirmed investigations are continuing regarding two other allegations of rape made against Brand, according to PA.

Speaking outside court, David Roberts of the Crown Prosecution Service said the evidence showed Brand “to be a calculated sexual predator, using his growing fame and power to create situations in which he could pursue women sexually regardless of what they wanted.”

Accusers say Brand transformed during alleged attacks

His accusers appeared in court over the past three weeks, revealing in emotional testimony how Brand forced them into sexual activity at a time when he was rising to fame as one of Britain’s best-known stand-up comedians and TV presenters.

Detectives had started looking into the comedian in 2023 after allegations were made in a joint investigation by three British media outlets – The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4’s “Dispatches” program. Brand also denied those allegations, which related to multiple women who were not involved in the criminal trial.

A number of women who were not known to each other came forward to officers with reports concerning Brand after that investigation was published, the Met Police said.

During the trial, prosecutors argued that Brand was a “sexual predator” who was pursing a mission to have sex with 5,000 women. Brand recognized that he had been obsessed with sex then but said that consent in sex was “fundamental.”

The trial against Brand opened in London in mid-October. One of the complainants told the court how the pair had met after a gig at the Hammersmith Apollo in 2009. She said the pair had engaged in a consensual threesome at the venue before she went to his townhouse for sex several days later. However, she said their second meeting turned into rape when he forced her into anal sex and ignored her pleas to stop.

The woman said she had turned to alcoholism in the wake of the incident. One of her friends described her as a “bright, bubbly and confident girl” but said “this experience definitely changed her,” according to PA.

Another woman told the court she “felt ashamed” and that the comedian acted “like nothing happened” after he groped her at a party at a bar in Soho, central London, in 2004.

Riding a wave of controversy to Hollywood

Brand started his career in showbiz as a stand-up comedian, drawing on his own experiences with illegal drugs and sex addiction for his performances. He became a British household name in the early 2000s as the host of “Celebrity Big Brother’s Big Mouth,” a spin-off of “Celebrity Big Brother.”

Brand’s chaotic energy, unfiltered language and provocative jokes made him a divisive pop culture personality, with the public split on loving or hating his act. In 2001, he was fired from MTV UK after turning up to work dressed as Osama bin Laden two days after the September 11 terror attacks. He later attributed his behavior to his addiction to crack cocaine and heroin. Brand went to rehab in 2002 and says he has remained sober since.

In 2006, he moved to mainstream radio with “The Russell Brand Show” on BBC Radio 2, a weekly Saturday night program during which he had frank, comedic – and often X-rated – conversations with a co-host and guests.

However, the popular radio show ended abruptly two years later with Brand’s exit following the broadcast of sexist and misogynistic voice messages to “Fawlty Towers” star Andrew Sachs, which sparked outrage and breached UK broadcasting regulations.

But the scandal didn’t halt Brand’s rise to global stardom. He went on to star in several Hollywood movies including “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “Get Him to the Greek.” He was married to Perry, the US pop star, between 2010 and 2012.

In the past decade, Brand has shifted away from his eccentric, sex-forward image and started making podcasts around spirituality, meditation and yoga. In 2017, he wrote a self-help guide, “Recovery: Freedom From Our Addictions,” while his performances moved from theater stages to wellness gatherings. That same year, he married Gallacher, with whom he has three children.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, he has cultivated something of a cult following online, with more than 6.6 million subscribers to his YouTube channel and a show on the new platform Rumble. He was living in Florida and became a born-again Christian, in 2026 publishing a book on his conversion through conservative commentator Tucker Carlson’s new imprint.

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CNN’s Sharon Braithwaite and Amarachi Orie contributed reporting.