Russell Brand was sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison today after being found guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault at Southwark Crown Court. A former prison governor has warned that a costly mistake behind bars could leave him exposed to attack.
Brand was accompanied in court by his wife Laura Brand. During his closing remarks before passing the sentencing verdict, the judge labelled him a "sexual predator."
Former prison governor warns of risk
Vanessa Frake, former head of security at HMP Wormwood Scrubs, discussed whether there will be a "showbiz bounty on his head." Frake, who supervised killers like Rose West and Myra Hindley, said: "It just depends on how people perceive him and how he handles himself. If he goes in with the arrogant, you know, I am the Messiah as he walked into court, then yeah, quite honestly. There'll be people who are doing whole life orders - they've got nothing to lose. And as much as you say you want to keep him safe, you can't be there 24/7."
Speaking on the Break The Ice channel, Frake said inmates will have differing reactions to the 51-year-old. She said some will want to befriend him because they "love a celebrity," but added: "There are those who will want to score a notch on a bedpost AKA Ian Huntley to say they've taken out a celebrity."
Pecking order in prison
Frake, the author of a book titled The Governor My Life Inside Britain's Most Notorious Prisons, added: "There are those who don't care about the celebrity status, just what he's convicted of, rape, sexual assault, which in the pecking order in a prison comes pretty much down at the bottom."
Former detective Mark Williams-Thomas also discussed Brand being a target on 30 Minute Crime. He responded: "When he gets sentenced, he'll most probably go to a vulnerable person's wing but he won't spend much time outside because he's got to be protected. There will be people in prison who want to take him out.
"And those people will negotiate with guards to try and find the opportunity for him to be alone so that he can be attacked. And so I would suspect within the next couple of years, he will be assaulted to some degree."
Brand received his sentence following a jury's guilty verdict last week on rape and three sexual assaults. Throughout the high-profile trial, he was also acquitted of two additional rape charges and one allegation of attempted indecent assault.
