Russell Brand's wife Laura Gallacher responded "oh God" as the disgraced comedian mouthed a 10-word message to her in court while awaiting his sentence. Brand, 51, was found guilty last week at Southwark Crown Court of raping a woman in 2009 and sexually assaulting female TV and radio workers between 2004 and 2009.
He was acquitted of raping a woman he met at a cabaret show on the fringes of the 1999 Labour Party conference in Bournemouth, and of attempting to drag an MTV worker into a toilet to indecently assault her in 2001.
Courtroom exchange
When Brand entered the dock on Monday, he turned to Gallacher in the public gallery and mouthed: "It'll be okay, I don't know how, but it will." Gallacher, who married Brand in 2017 and shares three children with him, said "oh God" as she saw him enter the dock, before telling him: "I love you."
Brand was also seen holding a crucifix, making the sign of the cross, and saying a prayer as one of his victims entered court to deliver a victim impact statement. His father Ronald Brand was among his nine-strong entourage in court.
Victim impact statement
One of the women who shared a victim impact statement was a Channel 4 worker sexually assaulted by Brand in 2009. She said the attack was "brushed under the carpet" by her bosses. The woman was targeted during a recording session when she was forced by Brand's entourage to give him a massage. After she reluctantly agreed, Brand knelt down and thrust his head into her groin.
In her statement, she said she felt "powerless" and was left "really upset" after the incident. She said: "Immediately after the incident I spoke up, and sadly it was brushed under the carpet by senior management. 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."
Two members of the entourage, Jack Bayles and Gareth Roy, told the woman that Brand was unhappy and refusing to continue recording until she had given him a massage. Channel 4 has acknowledged that the complaint was mishandled in 2009, and Brand continued to appear on the channel's shows until 2019.
The woman added: "I felt I lost my trust in people and felt that my working environment wasn't safe. From that point onwards, I made sure that I wasn't sitting in a room alone and consciously made sure I had a colleague with me in a professional environment. It opened my eyes in a bad way. I became more wary of working relationships with people I did not know. I feel like I was quite innocent before and this burst that bubble."
