00:00Ten and a half years in prison. For one of Britain's most famous comedians, the fall is now complete.
00:08Russell Brand, 51, was sentenced on Monday at Southwark Crown Court in London,
00:13ten years and six months behind bars, for rape and sexual assault.
00:17The judge called him a sexual predator. He said Brand's offenses were driven by staggering arrogance at the very height
00:26of his fame.
00:27A jury found him guilty last Thursday of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault, involving four
00:33women.
00:34The offenses happened between 2004 and 2009.
00:37The sentence breaks down like this.
00:40Nine years for the rape served on top of 18 months for the longest of the sexual assaults.
00:45The other two assault sentences run at the same time.
00:48Brand must serve two-thirds of the sentence in custody around seven years before he can be considered for release,
00:55and he will be on the sex offenders register for life.
01:00He was acquitted of two other rape charges and one count of attempted indecent assault.
01:04He has always denied the allegations, and he pleaded not guilty to every charge.
01:09The trial lasted four weeks, seven charges, six women, and alleged incidents spanning a decade, from 1999 to 2009.
01:19Prosecutors told the jury Brand used his celebrity status to pursue women, a calculated sexual predator, they said,
01:27attacking women at his home, in a bar, and at their workplaces.
01:32The victims were female television and radio workers, women who encountered Brand as he was becoming one of Britain's biggest
01:38stars.
01:40This was the peak of his fame, a stand-up comedian turned television presenter, then a Hollywood actor, and the
01:46former husband of pop star Katy Perry.
01:49But the case began long before the courtroom.
01:52In September 2023, a joint investigation by Channel 4's Dispatches and the Sunday Times published allegations from four women.
02:04Two days later, the Metropolitan Police opened their own investigation.
02:09More women came forward.
02:10The inquiry lasted three years and it ended in criminal charges.
02:14The first charges came in April 2025, involving four women.
02:19More charges followed in December, involving two more women, and alleged offenses in 2009.
02:25And it may not be over.
02:26Police have confirmed they are still investigating two further allegations of rape against Brand, including one from a woman who
02:35was 16 at the time.
02:37The judge weighed the other side, too.
02:40He cut a year from the sentence for Brand's lack of previous convictions, and for the good work he has
02:45done helping people battling addiction.
02:47But he was blunt about the limits of that.
02:50Good character, he said, should not normally carry significant weight, and it does not justify a lighter sentence for crimes
02:56like these.
02:58The verdict lands in a bigger moment.
03:00Across the entertainment industry, the question is no longer whether powerful men face consequences.
03:06It is how long justice takes to arrive.
03:10Three years from investigation to verdict, 17 years since the last offense, and a sentence that keeps one of Britain's
03:17most famous names behind bars until the next decade.
03:21For the four women at the center of this case, the sentence is the end of a weight that began
03:26when they first spoke out, and a reminder that their evidence was believed.
03:31The rise was fast, the fame was enormous, and the fall is now measured in years, ten and a half
03:39of them.
