LONDON — LONDON (AP) — Russell Brand will face a reckoning Monday for sexual misconduct that occurred offstage in the public life that boasted of his erotic exploits.
Brand, 51, faced a significant prison sentence after being found guilty of raping one woman and sexually assaulting three other women.
The British actor-comedian, known for his extreme stand-up routines and struggles with drugs and alcohol, has maintained that he is innocent and that all of his encounters were consensual.
But a jury of eight men and four women did not accept his plea and found him guilty of assaulting four of his six accusers, with allegations dating back to 2004. He was cleared of two counts of rape and one count of attempted indecent assault.
Brand was cursed in part because of his remarks about his obsession with sex and his well-documented promiscuity.
Prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones described Brand as a ruthless, calculating, manipulative “sexual predator” who treated women like “disposable commodities”.
He cited his 2007 memoir, “My Booky Wook,” to show how his insatiable sex drive led him to cross the line.
“If I want something—whether it be a job or a woman—I will resolutely, resolutely eliminate everything that stands in my way until I have the object of my desire,” he wrote.
The accusers came forward following a 2023 investigation by The Times and Channel 4, which published accusations from women who said they had been sexually harassed and humiliated by Brand.
Brand was convicted of sexually assaulting a woman during a birthday party at a London bar in 2004, but was cleared of orally raping her in a toilet.
He was also convicted of kissing and touching another woman at a London radio station in 2004 or 2005, and of anally raping her at her home after meeting a fan backstage at a comedy show in 2009.
The eventual conviction stemmed from the comedian sexually assaulting a different woman who said she asked for a massage and pressed her face into his crotch during a commercial shoot in 2009.
Brand was acquitted of raping another woman in a hotel room during Labour’s annual conference in the seaside town of Bournemouth in 1999, and of attempting to indecently assault a woman by dragging her into the men’s toilets at the London office of music channel MTV.
The Associated Press does not name alleged victims of sexual violence, and British law protects their identities from the media for life.
Known for his extraordinary stand-up routines and struggles with drugs and alcohol, Brand came to prominence in the early 2000s by hosting television programs and his own BBC radio show. He starred in Hollywood films such as ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’ and ‘Get Him to the Greek’ and was briefly married to pop star Katy Perry.
He stepped away from mainstream media in recent years, moving to Florida and building a large online following with videos that mix healthy living, conspiracy theories and discussions of his religious affiliation.