The Metropolitan Police Commissioner has said that Russell Brand's victims did not report his crimes for years because of the "power of celebrity." Sir Mark Rowley praised the bravery of those who later spoke out and urged other alleged victims to contact the police, stressing that "powerful people will be convicted." He expects "many more" women to come forward now.
Brand spent his first night behind bars after being convicted of raping one of his fans at his London home and sexually assaulting three women during his showbiz career. The 51-year-old had preyed on women he encountered while becoming one of Britain's best-known stand-up comedians, a lauded TV and radio host, and a Hollywood movie star.
Conviction and court proceedings
His victims came to court to reveal how Brand had forced them into sexual activity, sometimes within seconds of their first meeting, using his fame to pursue a goal of sex with 5,000 women. On Thursday at Southwark Crown Court, a jury found him guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault. He now faces years in jail. He was cleared of two further charges of rape and one allegation of attempted indecent assault.
The convictions follow an investigation in September 2023 by journalists from The Sunday Times, The Times, and Channel 4 Dispatches. They published and broadcast accusations from women who said they had been raped, sexually abused, and degraded by Brand. The revelations prompted four women to come forward to accuse Brand of criminal offences, while another two women came forward once Brand had been charged.
Police response and investigation
Asked why it took journalists, rather than the police, to begin the inquiries into Brand, Sir Mark told Times Radio: "This all starts, doesn't it? Because people are nervous about coming forward because they see the power of someone. In this case, the power of celebrity, and they're nervous about whether they will be believed."
He added: "This does send a message about institutions that sometimes there are rumours, there are corridor conversations where there are concerns about an individual, and they don't always get surfaced. It's great that journalists surface that to start off with, and their work's been excellent, and I'm proud of what officers have done on the back of it."
The police boss praised the bravery of Brand's victims to step forward, speak to the police and go through the court system to bring him to justice "when you've had something so intrusive and awful happen." He added: "That really shows real bravery and determination, and you have to admire that."
Further allegations and sentencing
Detectives are investigating two more rape allegations against Brand, and Sir Mark stressed: "We're encouraging anybody else to come forward if there's any other allegations." He added on BBC Breakfast: "I clearly wouldn't be surprised if many more came forward."
At pre-trial court hearings, it was revealed one of the complaints came from a woman who dated Brand when he was 30 and she was a 16-year-old schoolgirl. The comedian-turned-conspiracy theorist will spend the weekend in custody before he returns to court on Monday to learn his prison sentence.
His wife Laura Gallacher, who attended much of the trial, was seen to hunch over in the public gallery as Mr Justice Bennathan told Brand that he now faces an inevitable and lengthy jail term. A couple of months after he started hosting Big Brother's Big Mouth in 2004, Brand sexually assaulted a woman in the Nordic bar in Soho, central London, by grabbing her breasts in the middle of the bar during a party of his former MTV colleagues. She accused him of dragging her to the men's toilets and orally raping her, but the jury found Brand not guilty on that count.
A worker at Capital Radio said Brand forced himself on her during a visit to the station in 2005, pinning her to a wall while he groped and "sloppily" kissed her. Brand was found guilty of sexually assaulting her. The victim told jurors that members of his entourage laughed as they saw the attack happen. He was also convicted of anally raping a 21-year-old superfan in his £2.3 million Hampstead townhouse in 2009, days after meeting her at one of his Hammersmith Apollo shows. The same year, during a recording session at Channel 4, Brand sexually assaulted another woman by thrusting his head into her groin after she was told to give him a massage.
