Russell Brand photographed at Southwark Crown Court before his conviction. Courtesy of Getty “Whatever women wear, wherever they go, indeed whatever they drink, they retain the right to say ‘no’ and to demand justice from criminal courts when sexual predators like you, Russell Brand, act without their consent.”
Those were the words that rang out across Southwark Crown Court as Justice Joel Bennathan sentenced the once-worshipped presenter, comedian and actor to 10 years and six months in prison on Monday. Hordes of journalists and paparazzi effectively set up camp for four weeks while the jury was taken through extensive allegations of rape and sexual assault. In total, six complainants accused Brand of frantic attacks from 1999 to 2009.
Here, the man who went on to carve out a career for himself in Hollywood films like Get Him to the Greek, Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Rock of Ages — a previously famed womanizer, sell-out stand-up and the ex-husband of pop superstar Katy Perry — was bleakly depicted in court sketches showing the now-devout Christian with his head bowed, rolling a rosary between his fingers.
And last week, after consistently denying any criminal wrongdoing whatsoever, he was found guilty on four of seven counts. Three were frenzied sexual assaults, and one was a violent anal rape that took place after a woman had consensual vaginal sex with Brand at his Hampstead home in 2009. Bennathan’s sentencing remarks capture the harrowing reality of the victim’s experience. He told Brand: “You flipped her over, removed the condom and, without asking, forced your penis into her anus, causing her great pain. She asked you to stop, then asked you again loudly. You replied, and I quote, ‘I want you to feel my cum.’ You ejaculated. She was distraught and in severe pain. The bed was heavily soiled by blood, sperm and faeces. You told her it was her mess, and made her try to clear it up. Shortly after, you went off to get ready, then went to work. She was driven to a nearby underground station by your driver, who for some reason had tissues ready to hand to her as she wept. She was left distraught, in pain and terrified she might have contracted HIV.” The courtroom was completely silent.
Over the last month, this trial has dominated the media, spawned entire podcast shows, and divided the British public. Brand admitted during the trial that no one would “touch him with a bargepole” and that he had failed to persuade anyone to testify on his behalf. Naturally, many of those familiar faces on the British comedy circuit distanced themselves long ago from the sex offender. Jonathan Ross released a statement this week saying he is “horrified” by Brand’s crimes and was “genuinely unaware” of his conduct; there are quite literally hundreds of others who have not — and won’t be — saying anything.
And as Brand now embarks on what looks like a seven-year stay at HMP Wandsworth prison, a number of questions remain unanswered. Is it true that his lurid behavior was “an open secret” across the British TV industry, and why were so many of these allegations about incidents in the workplace? Why had Brand’s defense, led by a barrister named Ian Winter, claimed that journalists “poisoned the well of justice” by publishing various investigations into Brand’s behavior? How, with the sheer brazenness of Brand’s actions palpable in each attack he was found guilty of, did this predator stay undetected for at least 17 years? And what message does his conviction send to others who still operate as he did?
Two sexual assault attorneys, a scholar of work, pay and insecurity in the creative industries at the University of Warwick, as well as the woman who spearheaded investigations at Channel 4 and Sunday Times that would kickstart a police probe into Brand’s crimes, talked to The Hollywood Reporter about how Brand’s conviction has changed the U.K. entertainment industry. They lay bare the specifics of a freelance-heavy industry that allowed Brand to evade punishment, how women were lured into spaces with him under the guise of flamboyant comedy, and the dedicated, years-long work of investigative reporters who helped bring a celebrity rapist to justice.
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“He Was Just So Famous”
Dorothy Byrne was head of news and current affairs at Channel 4 when Jemima Goldsmith, Brand’s ex-girlfriend, came to talk to her in 2019. “People would say, ‘How did you get onto the story?’ And I would say, ‘Oh, well, somebody told me about it,'” Byrne begins to THR.
It is only in the last 48 hours that Byrne has been able to publicly name Goldsmith as that whistleblower. The TV producer, who dated Brand for around a year in 2014, took to social media after his sentencing this week to detail her own experience of “violence, coercive control and abuse” at the hands of Brand. “I didn’t know about Russell Brand,” says Byrne. “I thought he was creepy and sleazy — and we now know that massive numbers of people in the media industry knew what a terrible person he was.” (Brand scarcely attempted to hide it himself; one of his stand-up tours in 2006 included an entire section dedicated to Brand telling the audience he likes “blowjobs where mascara runs a little bit.” A former friend testifying for the prosecution said Brand bragged about wanting to sleep with 5,000 women.)
Byrne continues: “But I worked in news and current affairs. Not comedy and entertainment. [Goldsmith] told me of her experience and she said, ‘I think he should be exposed to protect other women.’ Even to have that conversation was, for her, difficult, and I really admire and thank her for it.”
Jemima Goldsmith, pictured with partner Russell Brand in 2013, was the first woman to approach Channel 4 about his behavior. Courtesy of Getty This would be the spark that would ignite a joint investigation between Channel 4’s Dispatches, The Times and Sunday Times, with two reporters — Rosamund Urwin and Charlotte Wace — leading the charge into reports, and eventually interviewing hundreds of people on the topic of Brand’s behavior. Byrne left her Channel 4 role in 2020 and maintains she was only involved in the early investigation. But even then, she says, other national outlets were tracking the story. “[They’d] found it very difficult,” she tells THR. “In this case of Brand, women were particularly afraid to talk. Firstly, because he was just so famous. They felt he was so famous and powerful. He’s got loads of money. ‘If I speak, he’s got all the power.’ And nearly everybody who works in TV now is freelance.”
And so came one of the first major hurdles in this case against Brand — the enduring trickiness of temporary contracts. Dr. Heidi Ashton, an expert in work, pay, and insecurity in the creative industries, says of the freelancer-filled TV industry in which Brand preyed on women: “A freelancer’s future employment depends heavily on maintaining a good reputation with the individuals who hire them, rather than with the organization issuing their contract. Raising concerns about bullying, harassment or unsafe working practices can therefore carry substantial professional risks — who would they go to with these issues? Workers may fear losing not only their current role but also jeopardizing their career.”
Much has been said of the men around Brand who watched the attacks unfold and did nothing. One of the sexual assaults involved Brand grabbing a woman’s breasts in a busy Soho bar in 2004; another saw him pushing a victim up against a wall, kissing her body and squeezing her breasts and buttocks “aggressively” — in the Capital Radio office. Last week, a former associate of Brand’s, Jack Bayles, was accused of watching and laughing while the entertainer placed his head and nose in a co-worker’s “vaginal area,” one of the assaults Brand was found guilty of. It took place as they worked on a Channel 4 project. (Bayles, whose credits include Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You and Kat Sadler’s Such Brave Girls, has officially been asked to “step back” from his producing role as head of comedy at independent TV production company Various Artists Limited.)
But this complainant did speak up immediately after Brand forced his head into her groin. “It was brushed under the carpet by senior management,” she explained in her victim impact statement on Monday. “This really affected me and had something similar happened again, at the time, I know I would not have had the confidence to speak up again. There was a culture, at the time, which meant I felt I had to just carry on and not talk about it anymore.”
“[Brand] was considered this treasure, and every time he got fired, he’d get promoted to another job. He kept moving around, and I don’t think it’s because he’s got a lot of talent,” says Dr. Ann Olivarius, a leading women’s rights attorney and co-founder of McAllister Olivarius, a law firm working across the U.K., U.S. and Ireland. Brand did indeed find himself bouncing between roles in British TV and radio: in the 2000s, he hosted Big Brother spinoff Big Brother’s Big Mouth and worked on The Big Fat Quiz of the Year, Russell Brand’s Got Issues and Russell Brand’s Ponderland. “His employers didn’t stop it,” Dr. Olivarius continues about his behavior. “It was all considered well and good. What is that old thing men say? ‘If you can get laid, then lucky you.’ I haven’t met a woman who’s told me that yet.”
Byrne, however, believes that the men in these offices were also frightened of how speaking up might affect their careers, with the risk of retaliation higher because of their freelance status. “These contracts are often so short that people’s fear is you just won’t get asked back, and it will get around that you are a complainer or a troublemaker.”
“But there was another thing as well with Brand — women described him as frightening,” she adds. “If you think of some of the evidence in the court … one minute he’s funny and sexy, and then in a moment he changes.”
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“They Get to This Godlike State”
Women were routinely deceived by Brand’s status as a comedian. “The fact he was a comedian…” Byrne trails off. “This thing of when a man assaults you and he laughs. He’ll laugh and grab you. Brand treated it like a joke.” After Channel 4 began investigating, Byrne quickly became aware of how notorious Brand was among female comedians. “I discovered that female comedians warned each other about him,” she tells THR. His flamboyant nature and sharp wit — Brand himself also admits in his 2007 autobiography My Booky Wook: “I decided to act gay to attract girls” — allowed the shocking violence of his actions to be quickly diluted by that guise of drollery. “When a man laughs and grabs a woman, if the woman then complains, she’s regarded as having no sense of humor… In the world of comedy,” Byrne asks, “what could be worse than being branded as a woman with no sense of humor?”
New York-based sexual harassment and assault attorney Megan Thomas, of Megan Thomas Law, concurs. “I think he did a lot of things in the name of art and in the name of being a comedian and being in show business,” she tells THR. “People could laugh it off as ‘Okay, that’s just part of his persona.’ But it isn’t real. He was really very derogatory towards women, and he had very little respect for them.”
It’s worth noting that Brand is not the first predator to have been brought to justice in the film and TV world, and he certainly won’t be the last. A fellow comic, David Walliams, is the subject of another bombshell investigation from The Guardian and ITV News on Tuesday that alleged he abused his power as a beloved comedy actor and Britain’s Got Talent judge to prey on teenage girls, some as young as 15, for sex. Walliams has vehemently denied he is a sexual predator and said: “I have not broken the law, but I am devastated that some of the women I met 10 to 20 years ago have now expressed hurt or anger towards me.” The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to his reps for comment.
Walliams himself said in that same statement, “a power imbalance is inevitable when one party is famous.” It is a facet of these cases that arises time and time again, which makes women in the entertainment industry particularly vulnerable. “The element of fame really plays a role because when someone is so famous, it is easy to overlook red flags,” Thomas continues. “These women are maybe starstruck to a certain extent. … Everyone around this star is often creating a bubble and just constantly saying good things about them; they think to themselves, ‘No one will ever believe me,’ and this is why we see these cases happen so frequently with celebrities because they get to this godlike state where they think they’re untouchable. And to an extent, they’re not wrong, right?”
Indeed, a couple of complainants in Brand’s case admitted to being fans of his. The anal rape victim met the disgraced star at his comedy gig at the Hammersmith Apollo (after which he saved her number in his phone as “T” for “tart,” according to Justice Bennathan). Not only was Brand able to exploit that sense of awe, but he also had the power — and money, as many of these male celebrities do — to put together a pretty intimidating legal team, who can advise their clients to resort to threats. “We have heard time and time again men using that threat,” says Thomas. “‘Oh, no one will ever hire you. I’ll tell everyone that you’re horrible.’ I don’t know that we’ve heard that in [the Brand] case. I didn’t read that specifically, but we’ve heard that repeatedly in cases involving actors and directors. And even if a woman’s not in show business, she realizes, ‘If I speak out because this person’s a celebrity, my name will get dragged through the mud too.'”
Dr. Olivarius says women fear retaliation in the workplace and can often lose their entire careers. “You lose your job, you can’t get hired, and then [your] whole future is destroyed. So the calculation is: ‘If I just keep quiet about this, and try to put it in a perspective that it’s a bad date as opposed to an actual rape and attack, then I can maybe live with this and I will still have a career,'” she tells THR.
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“This Is Trump’s Playbook”
Even though the women testifying against Brand are entitled to lifelong anonymity, living through the trauma every day in court was clearly taxing. Some of them told the jury so themselves, and would fight back tears as they described how Brand forced himself on them.
Russell Brand at Southwark Crown Court with his wife, Laura, on Oct. 27. Courtesy of Getty Winter attempted to argue that these women were spurred on by the 2023 release of Channel 4 and The Sunday Times‘ investigation, in which Brand was accused of several attacks by a slew of women. Winter said Urwin, Wace and the team of journalists working on that documentary had “poisoned the well of justice” by prompting these complainants to reframe their encounters with Brand, decide they were nonconsensual, and press criminal charges. Brand, says Winter, was denied a fair trial because of the media.
Though the jury was ultimately unconvinced by this line of reasoning, Byrne says Winter — who reportedly snarled at Urwin outside the court after Brand’s guilty verdicts came in: “Are you happy now? You f***ed it” — deployed a rhetoric imported by President Donald Trump. “This attempt to say that when journalists do an investigation, it’s criminal… That is new,” she says. “Where does it come from? Donald Trump. This is his playbook. You don’t just attack journalists. You don’t call them liars.” Dr. Olivarius makes a similar point — that the rise of Trump, who himself faces extensive allegations of sexual assault, has led the way, especially in the U.S., for a post-#MeToo dismissal of women’s experiences. “Are women really such liars?” Dr. Olivarius asks. “Can you not trust a woman with her testimony?” She cites the recent Cornell 7 case as an example of that trend.
Putting the other criticisms around Winter’s misogynistic and “shameful” defense aside, both Thomas and Dr. Olivarius maintain that it is extremely rare for women to lie about their rape and sexual assault experiences. “Who wants to brag about sexual interference? Nobody,” says Dr. Olivarius. “I don’t know those women, but there seems to be this image, these rape myths, that somehow women make it up. I’ve never had anybody in my thousands of clients who I felt had made it up.”
These women, now widely commended for their bravery, were indirectly found through the tireless work of investigative reporters at Channel 4 and The Sunday Times. Brand was brought to justice because of that work, no matter how Winter spun it in court. “That investigative journalism helped more victims come forward,” says Thomas.
Brand’s conviction and lengthy sentence have set a precedent — a warning — for fellow industry predators, who are likely still operating. “They should be very scared,” says Byrne. “One of Brand’s offenses was that he reached over and grabbed a woman’s breasts. That has happened every day in TV. Well, it won’t be happening now because he got several months in jail for that.”
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“A Turning Point”
Such was the media coverage around the trial — and the livestream of the firm, unemotional, victim-commending statement from Justice Bennathan — that Brand now serves as an illustration of what powerful investigative reporting and courageous victims can do: hold the previously unimpeachable to account. “Several women I know who work in TV said to me before the case, ‘He’ll never be found guilty,'” Byrne admits. “I said, ‘Why not?’ and they said, ‘Because they never get found guilty. They always get away with it.’ But the evidence was there… The coverage was massive, and the public reaction has been huge.”
With the confirmation from the Met Police that Brand is under investigation for two more alleged rapes, Byrne thinks there will be a change. “I think more women are going to come forward. Look at how long he worked in the industry, nearly 30 years, and look at how prolific he was. This man could have hundreds of victims. I think this is a turning point.”
Dr. Olivarius hopes that civil cases will allow the women to receive compensation for what they’ve been through. “With criminal cases, they get no money damages. They get no therapy costs. They get nothing. They just testified. They did the right thing.” She lauds the introduction of Britain’s Employment Rights Act, which introduces sweeping changes across 2026 and 2027 and is set to significantly strengthen rules around workplace harassment, whistleblower protections and non-disclosure agreements. The country remains in dire need of stronger law enforcement and funding for victims’ therapy, she adds as a caveat.
While sexual assault and rape remain “an epidemic” in British, American and Irish society, Dr. Olivarius concedes that Brand’s conviction is unusual. “It’s really rare that they’ve got this guy,” she says. “He was so flamboyant, so bragging, and even in the courtroom, he’s got his Bible, waving it in the air as if it were air freshener. And what this will do to his arrogance and sense of self-satisfaction, I [am] very curious to see.” Thomas believes it proves the existence of a harsher spotlight on male predators in our current climate. “I don’t know if anyone’s listening, but I think we are seeing a second wave of the #MeToo movement,” she tells THR.
And Byrne, who has been privy to Brand’s reign of terror longer than most, is simply just relieved that women across the industry now have proof of what’s possible. “You can do something about it, you can go to the police, you can report them to your employer, and your employer has to do something about it,” she says. She is content that the man now in prison is exactly the man those women said he was. “He’s been left wing, he’s been right wing, he’s been an atheist, he’s been a Christian, he’s been a conspiracy theorist. But he hasn’t been any of those really,” says Byrne. “He’s been evil, criminal Russell Brand, all along.”
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