Russell Brand found guilty of one rape and three sexual assaults at Southwark Crown Court

The verdict

On Thursday, 5 November 2026, a jury at Southwark Crown Court in London found Russell Brand guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault. The 51-year-old comedian closed his eyes and stood upright in the dock as the mixed verdicts were read, showing limited emotion. The jury, made up of eight men and four women, took just under two days to return its verdicts. The jurors cleared him of several other counts, including two rape charges and an attempted indecent assault charge. Sentencing is scheduled for Monday, 9 November, and Brand, who has denied the allegations, is due back in court then.

Which counts stuck and which did not

Prosecutors said the charges involved six women and episodes between 1999 and 2009, a period when Brand was becoming a public figure. The guilty findings cover the rape of a 21-year-old fan after a 2009 stand-up show at the Hammersmith Apollo, the groping of an MTV worker at a Soho bar party in 2004, the sexual assault of a Capital Radio worker in a corridor in 2005, and a 2009 sexual assault on a Channel 4 worker during a massage she had been forced to give him. The jury acquitted him of raping a woman he met at a cabaret show during the 1999 Labour Party conference in Bournemouth. It also found him not guilty of attempting to pull an MTV worker into a toilet in 2001 and of orally raping the Soho bar worker. Prosecutors described Brand as a predator whose pursuit of sleeping with 5,000 women was obsessive.

Brand's defence

Brand took the stand on 28 October, telling the jury the allegations had been deeply traumatic and had a devastating impact on him. He said consent during sex is fundamental, and denied having a goal of sleeping with 5,000 women while admitting he had been obsessed with sex in his younger years. Asked whether he had raped or sexually assaulted the women, he repeatedly answered no. In closing, defence barrister Ian Winter KC urged the jury to separate Brand's treatment of women from the question of whether he committed crimes. Winter argued the complainants came forward many years later for reasons connected to the Channel 4 Dispatches programme. Brand's wife, Laura Gallacher, attended court with him.

Career and the case timeline

Brand began as a stand-up comic before Channel 4 picked him to front Big Brother spin-off shows, and he became one of Britain's best-known comedians in the 2000s, with awards presenting roles and a BBC Radio 2 show. He moved into Hollywood films, including a remake of Arthur, Forgetting Sarah Marshall and the 2012 musical comedy Rock of Ages. In recent years he has focused on podcasting and online influencing, and he now lives in Florida. The allegations first came to light in a 2023 joint investigation by The Times and Channel 4's Dispatches, and the prosecution told the jury Brand had told police that year that he had never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity.

The case now moves to sentencing, which is set for Monday, 9 November.