Katherine Ryan has said she felt "grief and relief" after Russell Brand was convicted of rape and sexual assault, describing herself as "dysregulated" and "caught off-guard" by the verdict.
The 43-year-old comedian, who has previously spoken in interviews about a "predator" working in the entertainment industry, reacted to the conviction on her podcast Telling Everybody Everything. In earlier interviews she said she could not name the male comic because it would be a "litigious minefield", but added that she had appeared on a TV programme with him and told the individual he was a "predator" to "his face". It has been widely speculated that she was referring to her time on Comedy Central's Roast Battle in 2018 alongside Brand, though she has not confirmed this.
Reaction to the verdict
Speaking on her podcast, Ryan said: "It really made me feel just quite dysregulated again, caught off-guard, emotional, in awe of the survivors who also had nothing to gain." She added: "They came forward despite Russell Brand having fame, power, money, and a legion of fans ready to attack them."
She continued: "I will never be someone who like, dances on graves. There has been some justice done today. There's a level of relief, but there's grief alongside relief."
Ryan also reflected on the wider impact of the case, saying: "Everything's nuanced, and it was proved in court that a terrible thing happened, and that means that a terrible thing happened. I just think again and again about people who have been hurt, and who have to carry that, who've carried that around long enough, and will continue to carry that in some way, regardless of what justice is done."
Concerns about what happens next
She expressed worry about the aftermath of the conviction, noting: "This verdict came because women were hurt, and I worry as well about what happens next. Because he's obviously spent a long time cultivating this idea that the establishment have invented these claims against him, and he's martyred himself to a growing audience who really still think that it is the courageous survivors who are the villains in this story."
She added: "I just… I don't know if you can podcast from jail. I hope not."
Ryan also spoke about the reaction among women, saying: "Today there are a lot of women speaking, like the way we always do, privately and quietly, the way we've learned to do, to avoid being attacked and to keep each other safe, and a lot of those women feel a very nuanced mix of emotions today."
The convictions
Brand, 51, was found guilty at Southwark Crown Court on November 5 of one rape and three counts of sexual assault. The jury convicted him of raping a young fan he met after one of his Hammersmith Apollo shows in 2009.
He was also found guilty of groping another MTV worker during a party at a Soho bar in 2004, though the jury found him not guilty of going on to rape her in a toilet. Brand was convicted of kissing and groping a Capital Radio worker after encountering her in a corridor in 2005, and of sexually assaulting a Channel 4 worker in 2009 when she had been forced to give him a massage.
He was found not guilty of raping a woman he met at a cabaret show on the fringes of the 1999 Labour Party conference in Bournemouth, and was cleared of trying to drag an MTV worker into a toilet to indecently assault her in 2001.
Further charges could follow, as more women came forward to police after Brand was first accused, and prosecutors are assessing whether to bring additional charges.
