Russell Brand Found Guilty Of Rape

Russell Brand has been found guilty of rape.

After two days of deliberations, the jury at London’s Southwark Crown Court delivered a verdict on all counts, finding the Forgetting Sarah Marshall star guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault.

Brand was being tried on three charges of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one of attempted indecent assault, which was reduced from indecent assault during the trial, based on allegations made by six women. Brand firmly denied all allegations.

Deadline has been reporting daily from a live video feed of the courtroom since the trial began around a month ago. It was initially anticipated to take at least six weeks but has taken less than four.

Over the past month, the court has heard from all the accusers, who have a lifelong right to anonymity, along with Brand, his wife and other witnesses.

All accusers came forward after seeing allegations about Brand in a Channel 4 documentary in 2023 and reading about him in The Times.

Brand’s defense argued that this doc “poisoned the well of justice deliberately” and “fundamentally corrupted” his accusers, while having a “truly devastating effect” on Brand’s life.

The prosecution said the exposé was not a “magic force” that caused six separate women to “recast” their memories, but that it had caused them to come forward and tell stories about their encounters with Brand that had “haunted them for years.”

The allegations stretched from 1999 to 2009, a period that saw Brand go from being an unknown actor to, in his own words, “staggering fame” after he started dating superstar Katy Perry.