Russell Brand Sentence: 10 Years and Six Months in Prison for Rape and Sexual Assault
A London judge sentenced Russell Brand to ten years and six months on Monday, four days after a jury convicted the comedian of rape and three sexual assaults committed between 2004 and 2009.
LONDON — Russell Brand was sentenced to ten years and six months in prison on Monday at Southwark Crown Court, four days after a jury convicted him of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault. Reuters reported that the 51-year-old stood in the dock as Judge Joel Bennathan handed down the sentence.
The offences were committed between 2004 and 2009, at the height of Brand's rise from stand-up comic and MTV host to one of Britain's most recognisable broadcasters. According to the court reporting read by this desk, he raped a woman he had met at one of his shows in 2009 and sexually assaulted three other women — at a bar, a radio station and a TV studio. USA TODAY reported that Brand will serve two-thirds of the sentence in custody before being released on licence.
The verdict itself came on Thursday, November 5, after a trial of about four weeks — this station covered it that day. Brand had faced seven counts in all; the jury acquitted him of two further rape charges and one count of attempted indecent assault, PEOPLE reported, citing the Metropolitan Police release. Monday's sentence closes the court phase of a case that reached from his early broadcasting years to his later reinvention as a political commentator with a large American following.
The sentencing was the morning's third-biggest U.S. search topic on the Google Trends listing this desk read at midday, as American audiences who knew Brand from film roles and, more recently, from online political commentary followed the end of the case. Any appeal would be a matter for Brand's lawyers and the court; none is reported in the coverage read this run.
