Russell Brand Found Guilty of Rape and Sexual Assault in British Court

Russell Brand has been found guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault in a British court.

The verdict was handed down Thursday following a three-week trial. He will remain in custody until sentencing on Monday.

The 51-year-old actor/comedian/podcaster was acquitted of two additional counts of rape and one count of attempted indecent assault.

A 2023 joint investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times, and Channel 4 Dispatches in the UK uncovered allegations of rape, sexual assault, and abuse by women against Brand between 1999 and 2012. The Metropolitan Police launched a criminal investigation into Brand in late 2023. Two years later, police charged the comedian, actor and podcaster with three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one count of attempted indecent assault.

Brand’s trial began in mid-October with prosecutors arguing that he was a sexual predator who forced women into sexual acts against their will and against the law. Brand maintained his innocence of any crimes in pleas and testimony on the witness stand with his defense counsel arguing his actions may have been immoral, but they weren’t illegal. During the trial, jurors listened as the six women who accused Brand took to the stand.

The 51-year-old Brand rose to prominence as a comedian and actor in the 2000s with a lurid and raunchy standup show and roles in movies like Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Brand married pop singer Katy Perry in 2010, but the two had finalized a divorce by 2012. Brand fell out of the spotlight in the late 2010s, but emerged as a right-wing conspiracy theorist and COVID denier after the pandemic hit in 2020. By 2025, he was performing at an event for conservative advocacy group Turning Point USA.