Russell Brand has been sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison for rape and sexual assault. Judge Joel Bennathan passed the term at Southwark Crown Court on Monday, after a four-week trial. In his remarks he described the 51-year-old as a sexual predator and criticised what he called a staggering arrogance. The offences, against four women, date from 2004 to 2009. Brand was found not guilty of two further counts of rape and of one count of attempted indecent assault. Tuesday is the first full day of the sentence, and the length of it is now the legal fact in front of the public.
The longest single term is nine years, for the rape of a 21-year-old woman in 2009 at Brand's home in London. Three counts of sexual assault drew additional terms of 18 months, nine months and eight months. One was an assault at a London bar in 2004. Another was at the Choice FM studios in 2004 or 2005. The court has ordered that he sign the sex offenders register, which follows automatically from the seriousness of the crimes. Sex offenders are outside the early release scheme that applies to some other prisoners. When he is released he is likely to serve the rest of the sentence on licence, with conditions that can include electronic monitoring.
What the sentence does and does not do
A determinate sentence of this length means the punishment is fixed and the licence is the second half of it. It does not mean the court has finished with the facts. Any appeal against conviction or sentence would go to the Court of Appeal, and nothing in Monday's hearing suggested that an application had already been lodged. The acquittals stand beside the convictions. Juries are allowed to believe some complainants and not others, and this jury did. Reporting of the case during the trial was limited by the usual rule that what is said in the absence of the jury stays out of the coverage. Those limits lift once the verdicts and the sentence are public.
The Term
- Total sentence: 10 years and six months.
- Nine years for a rape in London in 2009. Three sexual assaults drew shorter consecutive terms.
- Not guilty of two counts of rape and one count of attempted indecent assault.
- He must sign the sex offenders register. Early release does not apply.
- Judge Joel Bennathan called him a sexual predator.
A court that has had a busy month
Southwark's sentence lands in a fortnight when the High Court has also been busy with reputation and with platforms. Amanda Abbington has settled a claim against the BBC over her time on Strictly Come Dancing, a civil compromise with no finding of a criminal offence. Ofcom's power to demand data from Meta, X and TikTok has already survived a High Court challenge. Brand's case is the criminal one, and it is in a different category. The complainants gave evidence in a trial. A jury convicted. A judge sentenced in open court and put his reasons on the record.
The public interest in the remarks is the judge's account of why the term is as long as it is: the number of victims, the gap in years, the use of fame as access, and the absence, in his view, of insight. Those are sentencing factors a judge applies once a jury has decided guilt. The licence conditions, when they come, will be the part of the order that lasts beyond the cell. For this morning the order is simpler. Russell Brand is in custody, the term is 10 years and six months, and the early release scheme will not shorten it.