Russell Brand's 10-year-and-six-month prison sentence for rape and sexual assault is slightly higher than one leading solicitor was expecting, yet it remains below the average rape sentence handed down last year.
On Monday, the disgraced comedian began his life as a prison inmate after Justice Bennathan imposed a nine-year jail term for the rape, plus an additional year and a half for the sexual assaults. Before being taken down to the cells, the 51-year-old mouthed "I love you" to his distraught wife, Laura Brand, who was in the court.
Expected Two-Thirds of Sentence in Custody
Brand is expected to serve two thirds of his sentence, which will amount to around seven years, before being released on licence. Upon release, he is likely to spend the rest of his sentence on licence and will have to abide by specific rules such as wearing a tag.
Lawyer Marcus Johnstone, managing director of PCD Solicitors, said he had predicted a shorter term. "I was predicting that Mr Brand would be looking at around 9 years in prison, so his overall sentence is slightly higher than I was expecting," he said.
Sentence Compared With Average Rape Term
Johnstone noted that the sentence is "slightly less than the average sentence for rape last year of 10 years and 7 months despite incorporating the months Brand must serve for the sexual assault offences too."
Sentencing Brand, Justice Bennathan said he harboured a "casual arrogant disregard to any woman's right to say no to you", while his fame meant he believed "you could act when you liked and how you liked". The judge told Brand: "About 20 years ago, Russell Brand, you were becoming famous, you were clever, and in many people's eyes you were funny and charismatic. You had also become a sexual predator."
Further Allegations and Background
One of his fans told how she was raped as a 21-year-old by Brand in 2009 at his luxury London home, while female staffers at Channel 4, MTV, and Capital Radio came forward to reveal how they had been sexually assaulted by the TV star.
Brand has since been accused of further violence by his former partner Jemima Goldsmith, who shared a post on X hours after his sentencing hearing which claimed she had to call the police in order to have him removed from her house during a "violent incident". Ms Goldsmith, who reportedly dated Brand for a year in 2014, wrote she has her own experience of his "violence, coercive control and abuse", and has neither seen nor spoken to the convicted rapist since that period.
The comedian rose to prominence as a reality TV presenter in the early 2000s before starring in major comedy films, from St Trinian's to Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him to the Greek.
