Russell Brand Found Guilty of Rape in London Trial

Photo: AFP via Al Jazeera

Russell Brand has been found guilty of rape and sexual assault by a jury at a London court. The 51 year old comedian now faces a long jail term, with sentencing set for Monday.

The jury at Southwark Crown Court gave its verdicts on Thursday after a trial that began on 12 October. Brand was found guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault. He was cleared of two other rape charges and one count of attempted indecent assault.

The guilty verdicts covered four attacks on four women between 2004 and 2009:

• Rape of a 21 year old fan in 2009, days after she met him at one of his stand up shows at the Hammersmith Apollo. The attack took place at his home in Hampstead, north London.
• Sexual assault of a woman at a party in a bar in Soho in 2004.
• Sexual assault of a radio worker in 2005, who he kissed and groped in a corridor.
• Sexual assault of a woman working on a Channel 4 project in 2009, during a forced massage.

The jury cleared him of raping a woman he met at a cabaret show during the 1999 Labour Party conference in Bournemouth, of orally raping the Soho bar woman, and of trying to drag another woman into a toilet to indecently assault her in 2001.

Brand had denied all seven charges, which were brought by six women and covered the years 1999 to 2009. He told the court the encounters were consensual, or that the claims had been made up or wrongly remembered. Prosecutors called him a ruthless sexual predator who used his fame to take what he wanted.

The judge, Mr Justice Bennathan, told Brand straight after the verdicts that he faced a lengthy prison term. Brand was remanded in custody until sentencing on Monday. The jury had spent eight and a half hours reaching its decisions, and each verdict had to be unanimous.

Brand was once one of Britain's best known comics and broadcasters, a regular on radio and television who went on to star in the films Get Him to the Greek and Arthur. He was also formerly married to US singer Katy Perry. In recent years he had built a large online following, where he often spoke about faith and politics.

The case was the result of a major investigation by the Metropolitan Police. The force said the verdicts followed a long inquiry into complaints from women who came forward about incidents spanning a decade of Brand's career at the height of his fame.

PakInsight Hub has also covered other major court cases this week, including Joshua Wong getting 10 more years in a Hong Kong security case and the Islamabad High Court fixing 10 November for Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi's appeals in the 190 million pound case. In other world news this week, Indonesia's president sacked his own chief of staff a day after the man was arrested over alleged phone tapping.

Sources

• Reuters: Comedian Russell Brand found guilty of rape and sexual assault
• Al Jazeera: Russell Brand found guilty of rape and sexual assault by UK court
• Metropolitan Police: Russell Brand convicted of rape and other sexual offences
• The Times: Russell Brand found guilty of rape and sexual assault

Brand will be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on Monday, when the judge will say how long he must spend in jail.

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