Russell Brand found guilty for rape and sexual assault

By: Cooper Hillman: Assistant News Editor

On Thursday, Nov. 5, English actor and comedian Russell Brand was sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison after being convicted of raping one woman and sexual assaultting three more.

Over the past month, six women testified against Brand, and he was found guilty on four out of the seven counts, one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault. He was found not guilty on two other counts of rape and one count of attempted indecent assault.

Brand raped a woman he met at one of his comedy shows in 2009 and sexually assaulted three more women at a bar, radio station and a TV studio between the years of 2004 and 2009. He denies all allegations saying he never had unconsensual sex.

According to the victims' claims, they report that Brand had unconsensual sex with them and apologized after doing so. They also explain he would continue having sex with them even though asking multiple times to stop because it was hurting them, and claims that he said “tonight was consensual. Nobody did anything they didn’t want to do.”

His comedy shows were already considered misogynistic, and he often campaigned for political controversies. He was accused of promoting denial of the COVID–19 pandemic and other conspiracy theories in the 2020s, including pro–Russian theories during their invasion of Ukraine.

Shortly after his conviction, reports came out that police begun an investigation on two further rape allegations involving Brand, which he had previously been interviewed involving connections to the cases.