Quick summary
- Russell Brand was sentenced on Monday to 10 years and six months in prison after a jury found him guilty on four of seven counts: one rape and three sexual assaults.
- The Hollywood Reporter says a police probe was kicked off by investigations at Channel 4 and The Sunday Times, after a tip to Channel 4 in 2019.
- Six women made allegations covering the years 1999 to 2009. Brand denied wrongdoing throughout the trial.
- The Metropolitan Police says it is assessing further information from people who came forward during and after the trial.
Russell Brand is expected to spend about seven years in custody, and a new account from inside British television explains how a conviction took so long to arrive. The Hollywood Reporter has traced the path from a private tip in 2019 to a sentence handed down at Southwark Crown Court this week. Our earlier coverage is collected under the Russell Brand tag.
The sentence and the verdict
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Mr Justice Bennathan sentenced Brand to 10 years and six months on Monday, after a four-week trial in which six complainants described incidents between 1999 and 2009. The jury found him guilty on four of the seven counts. Three were sexual assaults and one was a rape, which the court heard took place at his Hampstead home in 2009.
Brand had consistently denied criminal wrongdoing. The magazine reports he told the court that nobody would “touch him with a bargepole” and that he had been unable to persuade anyone to speak on his behalf. He is being held at HMP Wandsworth in London, where solicitor Kally Sahota told Page Six he is expected to stay for “the next few weeks” before a transfer based on “security, safety and rehabilitation needs”.
The tip that started it
The most striking detail in the feature is how quietly it began. Dorothy Byrne was head of news and current affairs at Channel 4 when Jemima Goldsmith, Brand’s former girlfriend, approached her in 2019. Byrne, who has been able to name Goldsmith as the source only in the last 48 hours, told the magazine she had not known about Brand herself, though she says “massive numbers of people in the media industry” did.
Goldsmith, who dated Brand for about a year in 2014, has since posted publicly about what she calls “violence, coercive control and abuse”. Those are her own statements, and the sources we reviewed do not test them further. The Hollywood Reporter says the Channel 4 and Sunday Times work in turn led to the police inquiry.
Questions the industry still faces
The feature lists several unanswered questions. Was his behaviour an “open secret” in British television? Why did so many allegations involve workplaces? And how did he go undetected for at least 17 years? It says Brand’s barrister, Ian Winter, argued during the case that journalists had “poisoned the well of justice” by publishing earlier investigations.
Colleagues have been distancing themselves. Jonathan Ross said this week he was “horrified” and “genuinely unaware” of the conduct, according to the same report. We have covered that statement in Jonathan Ross ‘horrified’ by Russell Brand and Walliams claims. David Walliams also features in the wider coverage of the case, though the sources we reviewed give no further detail on that link.
Katy Perry’s first outing since the verdict
Brand was married to Katy Perry from 2010 to 2011. Page Six reports she was photographed leaving a Beverly Hills restaurant on Wednesday night, holding hands with her boyfriend, former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau. It describes this as her first public outing since the conviction.
Page Six adds that Brand’s legal team reportedly stopped prosecutors raising the marriage during the trial. Older remarks by Perry have resurfaced online, including a 2013 Vogue interview in which she called him controlling. She has not issued a statement on the verdict in anything we reviewed.
A character reference and fresh inquiries
One surprising voice at the sentencing was Georgina Baillie, granddaughter of Andrew Sachs, who was at the centre of the 2008 Sachsgate scandal. LBC says she gave a character reference describing a consensual relationship in 2006. AOL reports it did not change the outcome. We looked at her letter to the judge separately.
AOL also reports that the Metropolitan Police is assessing information from several people who made contact during and after the trial. Detective Superintendent Andy Furphy has urged anyone with similar experiences to come forward, however long ago they occurred.
What happens next
Brand will move from Wandsworth to another prison in the coming weeks. The Metropolitan Police says detectives are assessing new information, but no further charges have been announced, and any new allegations remain allegations until tested in court. Meta has also acted on his accounts, as we reported in Meta removes Russell Brand’s Instagram.
Frequently asked questions
How was Russell Brand caught?
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jemima Goldsmith approached Channel 4 in 2019. Investigations by Channel 4 and The Sunday Times followed, and they led to a police inquiry and the trial.
What was Russell Brand convicted of?
A jury found him guilty on four of seven counts: one rape and three sexual assaults. He was sentenced to 10 years and six months on Monday.
Where is Russell Brand now?
He is at HMP Wandsworth in London and is expected to stay there for the next few weeks before a transfer to another prison.
Are there more allegations against him?
The Metropolitan Police says it is assessing information from several people. No further charges have been announced.
