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Russell Brand received a lengthy prison sentence after being found guilty of rape and sexual assault.
Brand, 51, returned to court in London for his sentencing on Monday, November 9, where a judge ruled that he would serve 10 years and six months in prison.
“You were clever — and in many people’s eyes, funny and charismatic,” Judge Joel Bennathan said during his sentencing remarks, per CNN. “You had also become a sexual predator.”
Brand reportedly showed no emotion as his sentence was delivered. He had a brief moment with his wife, Laura Gallacher, before being taken away, saying, “We’ll be OK.”
Multiple women accused Brand of sexual assault, rape and emotional abuse, with the allegations spanning from 1999 to 2013. Several of the accusations were explored in Channel 4’s 2023 documentary Russell Brand: In Plain Sight.
“I don’t mind [the media] using my books and my stand-up to talk about my promiscuous, consensual conduct in the past. What I seriously refute are these very, very serious criminal allegations,” Brand said in a YouTube video in April 2025. “Also, it’s worth mentioning that there are witnesses whose evidence directly contradicts the narratives that these two mainstream media outlets are trying to construct, apparently, in what seems to me to be a coordinated attack.”
Before his trial, Brand admitted he previously slept with a 16-year-old girl when he was 30.
“The plain fact of it is that in Europe and in the United Kingdom, where I’m from, the age of consent is 16. And I did sleep with a 16-year-old when I was 30,” he said on The Megyn Kelly Show in April. “When I was 30, I was a very different person. I was a lot younger, and I was an immature 30-year-old.”
After his shocking admission, Brand addressed the public backlash surrounding him.
“What fame gave me and what my addiction fueled was the opportunity for endless consent, which led me to be a hedonist and a fool, and an exploiter of women, and that is wrong. And that is something that needs to be redeemed and addressed and atoned for,” he argued. “What I’m obviously not only querying, but violently or aggressively or assertively opposing, is the idea that this is a judicial criminal matter where consent was overridden.”
Brand entered a not guilty plea before he was tried on the seven sexual offense charges, all of which he vehemently denied. He was ultimately found guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault on Thursday, November 5, after a two-day jury deliberation.
“I’m good, I’m good,” Brand mouthed to his defense team after the ruling, according to the BBC.
The actor’s father, Ron Brand, told the outlet that he was “bemused and shocked” by the verdict, adding, “I just didn’t expect this — it’s wrong. It’s devastating.”
If you have experienced sexual assault, call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 for confidential support.
