Comedian Russell Brand has been found guilty of rape and sexual assault at Southwark Crown Court, after a three-week trial.
The jury, which began considering its verdicts on Tuesday, returned them on Thursday. Brand, 51, was convicted of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault. He was acquitted of two further counts of rape and one count of attempted indecent assault.
He had denied all seven charges, which related to six women and alleged incidents between 1999 and 2009.
What the jury decided
Brand was found guilty of raping a fan he met after a stand-up show at the Hammersmith Apollo in 2009. He was also convicted of sexually assaulting a Capital Radio employee in 2005, assaulting a Channel 4 worker during a forced massage in 2009, and groping an MTV worker at a party in Soho in 2004.
He was cleared of the alleged oral rape of the MTV worker, of raping a woman he met at a cabaret show on the fringes of the 1999 Labour Party conference in Bournemouth, and of attempting to drag an MTV employee into a toilet to indecently assault her in 2001.
Mr Justice Bennathan told Brand: “Sit down, Mr Brand.” Brand showed little emotion as the verdicts were read out, though he closed his eyes when the conviction for raping the young fan was announced.
Remanded in custody until sentencing
Brand has been remanded in custody until sentencing on Monday. Rape carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
The jury of 12 — eight men and four women — had been told their verdicts must be unanimous. They deliberated for about an hour on Tuesday before being sent home for the night, spent a second day without reaching a verdict on Wednesday, and returned their verdicts on Thursday.
Earlier in the trial, on 27 October, the judge directed the jury to clear Brand on one indecent assault count after ruling there was insufficient evidence, with that count reduced to attempted indecent assault.
Brand, who attended court every day with his wife, has said the acts in question were consensual. He was briefly married to the pop star Katy Perry.
The verdict closes a trial that has drawn national attention to questions of consent, celebrity power and how allegations made years later should be considered. Sentencing takes place on Monday.
