JK Rowling Says One Woman's Good Night Doesn't Clear Russell Brand

A jury convicts, a judge remands him

Russell Brand's trial ran for three weeks at Southwark Crown Court in London, from October 14 to November 3. Six women took the stand and described encounters with the comedian between 1999 and 2009.

On Thursday, November 5, a jury of eight men and four women returned its verdicts after more than eight hours of deliberation spread across two days. They convicted Brand, 51, of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault. They acquitted him of two further rape charges and one count of attempted indecent assault.

Brand stood straight in the dock as the verdicts were read and closed his eyes when he heard he had been found guilty of rape, according to Britain's Press Association, as reported by CNN. Before the jury returned, he had told his wife, Laura Gallacher, 'I love you.'

Mr Justice Bennathan denied him bail and remanded him into custody on the spot. 'The consequence of that is inevitably a significant custodial term,' the judge said, according to CNN, setting sentencing for the following Monday, November 9.

At that hearing, Bennathan handed down a combined sentence. 'The total sentence is one of ten years, six months,' he said, according to NPR, adding that Brand had become 'a sexual predator' and pausing to pay tribute to 'the determination and bravery' of the women who came forward.

Who's involved

Brand built his career as a stand-up comic and provocateur, hosting 'Celebrity Big Brother's Big Mouth' and a BBC Radio 2 show that ended in 2008 after he and a co-host left crude voicemail messages for actor Andrew Sachs. He later moved into Hollywood films, including 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall' and 'Get Him to the Greek,' and in the past decade reinvented himself again as a podcaster focused on spirituality and wellness.

He was married to pop star Katy Perry from 2010 to 2012. In 2017 he married Laura Gallacher, an author and illustrator who sat with him in court throughout the trial and sentencing; the couple have three children.

The six women who testified against him have lifelong anonymity under UK law and were not identified in court or in press coverage. CNN reported they were not known to each other before coming forward.

The case also drew public commentary from author JK Rowling, tennis champion Martina Navratilova and comedian Samantha Pressdee, who had publicly described her own, consensual encounter with Brand back in 2023.

"I don't want to shame any particular woman here, but publicly announcing that the #RussellBrand conviction must be wrong because you went home with him and he didn't rape you makes about as much sense as saying 'well, I left 25 Cromwell Street alive, so Fred West's innocent." — JK Rowling, author

The charges, the convictions, what's still open

Brand faced seven counts in total: three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one count of attempted indecent assault, brought on behalf of six women.

The rape conviction concerns a 21-year-old fan Brand met after a show at the Hammersmith Apollo in 2009. She testified, per CNN, that she and Brand had a consensual encounter at the venue, but that when she went to his home days later, he forced her into anal sex and ignored her pleas to stop. Prosecutors cited his removal of a condom during the assault as an aggravating factor at sentencing, according to NPR.

The three sexual assault convictions cover separate incidents reported by the Daily Express, citing CBS News: grabbing a woman's breasts at a bar in London's Soho neighborhood in the summer of 2004; assaulting a woman at Choice FM radio station in 2004 or 2005; and forcing a woman to give him a massage at a television studio in 2009.

A rape conviction means a jury found, beyond reasonable doubt, that Brand penetrated a woman without her consent. A sexual assault conviction means the jury found he touched a woman sexually without her consent. Brand was acquitted of two separate rape counts and one count of attempted indecent assault.

The Metropolitan Police said two further rape allegations against Brand remain under investigation, with files already sent to the Crown Prosecution Service for a charging decision, CNN reported. One of those allegations, per pretrial hearings cited by CNN, came from a woman who says she dated Brand when she was 16 and he was 30.

What the women told the court

Four of the women gave victim impact statements before sentencing, NPR reported. Three were read aloud by prosecutors; a fourth woman appeared in court behind a curtain to read her own.

The woman Brand was convicted of raping said the assault 'is something I carry with me every day and it often feels never-ending.' She told the court, according to NPR, 'I doubt my ability to make good decisions and no longer trust my instinct in the way I did,' and said she hadn't reported him sooner because she didn't think she'd be believed given his fame.

The woman he assaulted at the Soho bar in 2004 said the confusion over what she 'should' or 'could' do had stayed with her for more than twenty years, and that she felt 'physically sick' seeing Brand's fame grow afterward, per NPR.

The woman from the 2005 incident said the assault had left 'a lasting impact' on her life, adding that 'hearing his voice on television or seeing his image has made me jump.' The fourth woman, assaulted at the TV studio, said she was badly affected and no longer felt her workplace was safe, NPR reported.

What Brand, prosecutors and police said

Brand took the stand and denied all seven charges, telling jurors he remembered some of the women but not others and that none of his encounters had been forced, according to CNN. He acknowledged he had 'misused' his fame 'very very selfishly' at the height of his career, per Yahoo Lifestyle Canada, but said consent was 'fundamental,' 'necessary,' and 'in many ways more important than sex itself.'

His defense barrister, Ian Winter, argued the allegations had been 'thoroughly contaminated' by media coverage that preceded the trial, Yahoo reported, and told the jury in closing that Brand was 'a fundamentally different person' from who he'd been at the time of the offenses, according to NPR.

Prosecutor David Roberts of the Crown Prosecution Service said after the verdict that the evidence showed Brand 'to be a calculated sexual predator, using his growing fame and power to create situations in which he could pursue women sexually regardless of what they wanted,' CNN reported.

Detective Superintendent Andy Furphy of London's Metropolitan Police said, per CNN: 'As his profile grew, so too did his sense of entitlement. I hope this conviction sends a clear message that no one is above the law, no matter how famous or powerful they may be.'

JK Rowling's comparison, and the pushback

The verdict revived a 2023 social media post by comedian Samantha Pressdee, who had described her own encounter with Brand that same year. 'I refused to have sex with Russell Brand. I was in his London flat. There was a lot of heavy petting, and we were both down to our pants. He didn't pressure me when I said no,' she wrote at the time, according to Yahoo Lifestyle Canada, adding that he never got 'angry or abusive' and that she felt safe enough to spend the night at his home.

After Pressdee's post resurfaced and gained traction following the conviction, JK Rowling responded on X without naming her. 'I don't want to shame any particular woman here, but publicly announcing that the #RussellBrand conviction must be wrong because you went home with him and he didn't rape you makes about as much sense as saying 'well, I left 25 Cromwell Street alive, so Fred West's innocent,' Rowling wrote, according to the Daily Express. Fred West was a British serial killer linked to at least 12 murders between 1967 and 1987; his home at 25 Cromwell Street became known as the House of Horrors after multiple bodies were found buried there.

Pressdee pushed back directly at Rowling on X, writing that she 'could have done with' the author's support when she faced backlash over her own views on gender identity, and questioning whether solidarity among women has to depend on sharing the same beliefs, per Yahoo Lifestyle Canada. 'Just because I am a woman doesn't mean I should believe all women,' she wrote. 'I would be more likely to believe women who report criminals to the police. Not the media decades later.' She also said she had offered to serve as a character witness for Brand's defense team but 'never heard back.'

Tennis champion Martina Navratilova, a frequent ally of Rowling's in public disputes, weighed in on X in support of Rowling's comparison, according to Sportskeeda. None of the complainants who testified against Brand have commented publicly; their identities remain protected by law.

What happens next

Brand is serving his ten-year, six-month sentence after being remanded into custody following the November 5 verdicts. The Metropolitan Police and Crown Prosecution Service are still deciding whether to bring charges over two additional rape allegations, including one from a woman who says the relationship began when she was 16; no date has been set for that decision or for any appeal of the current convictions.