For Brand’s critics, this is the end of a long road. The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4 broke the allegations in September 2023, and police began investigating shortly after. He was charged in April 2025 and pleaded not guilty that May. The trial finally began this autumn.
The jury considered seven counts and convicted him of four. Brand was found guilty of raping one woman and sexually assaulting three others, and acquitted on two further rape counts and one of attempted indecent assault. The final conviction involved a different woman who said he demanded a massage and pressed his face into her groin during the recording of an advertisement in 2009.
Brand maintained throughout that everything was consensual. After he was charged, he said in a video he had never engaged in nonconsensual activity. The jury didn’t accept that for four of the six accusers.
Bennathan’s sentencing remarks were long, and unusually direct about celebrity. “About 20 years ago, Russell Brand, you were becoming famous,” he told him. “You were clever and in many people’s eyes, funny and charismatic. You had also become a sexual predator.” He also described a “staggering arrogance,” and said Brand’s entourage often “indulged” his dreadful behaviour. He paused to pay tribute to the determination and bravery of the women who came forward.
The women spoke for themselves first. Four gave impact statements in court. One said she hoped he would not be allowed to hurt any more women, according to U.S. News and other reports. Page Six described Brand as emotionless during the hearing, clutching rosary beads. Several outlets reported that he mouthed words to his wife, Laura, from the dock, and that she was visibly distressed.
The reaction has been divided. Government and industry voices have focused on the media business. A BBC headline says a minister warned the industry that “time is up” and told it to take abuse seriously. CNN asked whether Brand was hiding in plain sight, and a survivor criticised Channel 4 for brushing the assault under the carpet, per a Deadline headline. Channel 4 hasn’t, in anything I’ve seen, responded to that charge.
Brand also has high-profile defenders. The New York Times headline says Megyn Kelly, Elon Musk and others defended him after the verdict, and Men’s Journal reports his father called the jury corrupt. Those are statements of opinion. The jury heard the evidence in court, and the verdict stands unless an appeal succeeds. Brand’s lawyers haven’t, in the reports I’ve found, announced one.
A few questions are open. First, whether Brand will appeal the conviction or sentence, which is his right. Second, what happens to the commercial and online platform he built after leaving the UK, since his large following has made him a political figure as well as a performer. Third, whether the media industry changes anything in practice, or whether this becomes another case where the promises fade.
For the women, the process is over, at least for now. Under British law their identities are protected for life, and the court heard them speak.
