Laura Gallacher, the wife of convicted rapist Russell Brand, is considering a permanent return to the UK with the couple's three young children as the disgraced comedian begins his 10-and-a-half-year prison sentence for rape and sexual assault.
Before the trial, Brand, 51, had been living with his family in Florida. He even threw a beach party before the family flew back to Britain for the court case in October, with those close to him reportedly confident he would walk free.
Moved to Main Wing at HMP Wandsworth
Following his lengthy sentence, Brand was moved to a main wing at HMP Wandsworth in southwest London, and may be transferred to another jail known informally as Monster Mansion. His wife Laura must now decide whether to support him in England.
A prison insider said: "Wakefield is quite literally known as Monster Mansion - it is the place where Britain's most vile monsters are holed up."
"We are talking brutal crimes - murder, rape, sex assaults. Some against children. Three quarters of the inmates in Wakefield are in for sexually assaulting people. It houses the worst of the worst, and probably is not a place where you'd want to take children to be honest."
Family Weighing Return to Oxfordshire
Convicted rapist Brand had uprooted his wife and their three young children from Oxfordshire, England, to Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, in late 2024, while retaining their English home, reports the Daily Star. It has been suggested that Laura and her three children are now weighing up a permanent return to their property in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, and enrolling the children into the British way of life.
The source added: "Children are allowed in Wakefield, they obviously have to be with an adult, and they still have to be listed as an approved contact before being allowed in."
"Laura will have to provide ID like a birth certificate or passport of the children to make them official visitors, and they will all have to be searched if they choose to have a face to face visit, so it is not an overly nice experience."
"They will all be patted down and could even be sniffed by drug detection dogs. It is a lot. But it is necessary and part of this new world they are now having to navigate."
