LONDON (AP) — Russell brand will be held accountable on Monday for sexual abuse that occurred just behind the scenes in a public life built around boasting about his erotic exploits.
Brand, 51, faces a lengthy prison sentence after being found guilty of raping one woman and sexually assaulting three others.
The British actor-comedian known for his outrageous stand-up routines and battles 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 buy his defense and declared him guilty of attacking four of the six accusers over allegations dating back to 2004. He was cleared of two counts of rape and one count of attempted indecent assault.
Brand was partly damned by his own words about his obsession with sex and his well-documented life of promiscuity.
Prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones called Brand a ruthless, calculating and manipulative “sexual predator” who treated women like “disposable merchandise.”
She cited her 2007 memoir “My Booky Wook” to illustrate how her insatiable libido led her to cross the line.
“If I want anything – whether it be a job or a wife – I will with determination and resolution remove everything that hinders me, until I possess the object of my desire,” he wrote.
The accusers came forward following a 2023 investigation by The Times and Channel 4 which aired accusations from women who reported being sexually abused and degraded by Brand.
Brand was convicted of sexually assaulting a woman at a birthday party in a London bar in 2004, but was cleared of orally raping her in the toilet.
He was also convicted of kissing and groping another woman at a London radio station in 2004 or 2005 and of anally raping a fan at his home after meeting her backstage at one of his comedy shows in 2009.
The final conviction involves the sexual assault of another woman who claims the comedian asked for a massage and pressed his face against her groin while recording a commercial in 2009.
Brand was acquitted of raping another woman in a hotel room at the Labor Party’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 toilet at the London office of the music channel MTV.
The Associated Press does not name victims of alleged sexual violence and British law protects their identities from the media for life.
Brand, known for his daring stand-up routines and battles with drugs and alcohol, rose to prominence in the early 2000s hosting television programs and his own BBC radio show. He appeared in Hollywood films including “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “Get Him to the Greek” and was briefly married to pop star Katy Perry.
In recent years, he moved away from mainstream media, moved to Florida and built a large online following with videos mixing wellness, conspiracy theories and discussions of his religious devotion.
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