Russell Brand jailed for 10 years and six months for rape and sexual assault

Sentence handed down in London

Russell Brand, 51, was sentenced on Monday, 9 November 2026, to 10 years and six months in prison at Southwark Crown Court in London. The former comedian had been found guilty on Thursday, 5 November, of raping a woman in 2009 and of sexually assaulting three other women between 2004 and 2009. Mr Justice Bennathan ordered the sentence to begin immediately, and Brand was taken to prison straight from court because of fears that he would abscond rather than return to court. The Evening Standard reported that he was understood to be held at HMP Wandsworth in south west London.

The convictions

The jury found that Brand raped a 21-year-old fan at his London home in 2009, after she had met him following one of his stand-up shows at the Hammersmith Apollo. She told jurors she had been a devoted fan and had taken part in a threesome with him backstage while she had a boyfriend. Days later she went to his Hampstead home, where she said he forced her into a sex act against her will. A second woman said he groped her breasts in a Soho bar in 2004, seconds after they were introduced at a party. A third woman was kissed and groped in 2005 at the Capital Radio studios in London as she walked out of a room. Brand was also convicted over a 2009 incident in which a Channel 4 worker, after being made to give him a massage, had his head pressed into her groin. He was cleared of two further rape charges and one attempted indecent assault.

Brand denied the allegations. He told the court that his sex life had been consensual and that he had lived a promiscuous life, and he admitted to "idiocy" while insisting he had done nothing illegal. The complainants described a famous and powerful man who kissed and groped women within seconds of meeting them.

The judge's remarks and victim statements

Mr Justice Bennathan, passing sentence, told Brand he had become a "sexual predator" as he rose to fame. He said Brand had shown a careless, arrogant indifference to a woman's right to refuse him, and that he believed fame let him act however he pleased. The judge also said Brand's entourage had indulged his behaviour. In victim statements read to the court, the rape complainant said that every development in the case dragged up memories of the attack and reopened old wounds. Friends and former colleagues described his bad behaviour towards women as having become accepted as he grew more famous.

Further investigation and reactions

The Metropolitan Police revealed after the convictions that Brand is under investigation over two further rape allegations. His wife, Laura Gallacher, declined to answer reporters' questions as she arrived at court on Monday, accompanied by another woman. An insider speaking to the Mail on Sunday said Katy Perry, Brand's former wife, plans a book about him and possibly a documentary series about their marriage, adding that she "has a lot to say". Brand and Perry married in 2010 in a Hindu ceremony in India and divorced in 2012.