Russell Brand convicted of rape and sexual assault as police pursue further claims

Russell Brand has been convicted of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault following a four-week trial at Southwark Crown Court in London. He was acquitted of two further rape charges and one count of attempted indecent assault. The 51-year-old entertainer was taken into custody after the verdicts and refused bail.

Judge Mr Justice Bennathan said Brand should expect a significant custodial term, with sentencing scheduled for Monday. The convictions involved four women and offences committed between 2004 and 2009, when Brand was a prominent entertainer. The BBC reported that the jury found him guilty of raping a fan after a 2009 stand-up performance at London’s Hammersmith Apollo.

He was also convicted of groping an MTV worker at a Soho bar in 2004, kissing and groping a Choice FM worker at the Capital Radio building in 2004 or 2005, and sexually assaulting a Channel 4 worker in 2009 after she had been forced to give him a massage. The verdicts did not resolve every allegation heard during the trial. Brand was cleared of raping a woman he met at a cabaret event in 1999 and of attempting to drag an MTV worker into a toilet for an indecent assault in 2001.

Brand denied all the charges and said he had never forced anyone into sexual activity. During the trial, he argued that consent was central to sexual relations and described himself as the target of a media conspiracy portraying him as a sexual predator. Police said their investigation remains active.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed that Brand had been interviewed under caution over two further rape allegations made by two women and that files relating to both complainants had been sent to the Crown Prosecution Service. Detective Superintendent Andy Furphy, the Met’s strategic lead on the investigation, urged other potential victims to contact specially trained officers. He said investigators believed there could be more victims and described Brand as a predator whose conduct escalated as his fame increased.

Those characterisations were made by the police after the verdict, not by the jury’s formal findings. The investigation, known as Operation Actinolite, involved more than 100 witnesses, over 1,400 documents and more than 340 statements, according to The Guardian. A separate civil claim alleges that Brand sexually assaulted a woman at his Los Angeles mansion in 2008.

Brand’s lawyer, Ian Winter KC, asked for bail so his client could prepare his affairs and say goodbye to his children. The judge refused, citing Brand’s considerable resources and concern that he might ultimately fail to return for sentencing. The police investigation and the further allegations remain separate from the convictions reached in this trial.