Russell Brand Gets 10.5 Years & Indefinite Sex-Offender Reporting

Russell Brand received a 10-year, six-month prison sentence on November 9 for raping one woman and sexually assaulting three others, with sex-offender reporting requirements set to continue indefinitely after his release.

At Southwark Crown Court, Judge Joel Bennathan gave the 51-year-old nine years for rape and separate sexual assault sentences of nine months, 18 months and eight months. The assault terms will run together, with the longest added to the rape sentence.

Brand had denied all seven charges. A jury convicted him on November 5 and cleared him of two other rape charges and one charge of attempted indecent assault. The four convictions concerned crimes committed between 2004 and 2009.

In his sentencing remarks, Judge Bennathan explained how he applied the totality principle, which requires an overall punishment to be just and proportionate.

“In practice that guidance means I should not make all four sentences consecutive to one another, and I should consider reducing one or more of the individual terms of imprisonment,” Judge Bennathan said. “I will, of course, follow that guidance but you committed sexual offences against a number of women over a five-year period: If I were to make all the sentences concurrent or greatly reduce any of them, that would not do justice to the overall gravity of your criminality.”

Judge Bennathan described the lasting harm in the rape victim’s impact statement.

“In her victim impact statement she wrote of struggling to eat and sleep, of taking two to three months off from work and of abandoning the career she had embarked upon. Although the rape was 17 years ago, she still finds it affects her ability to form new friendships and to know when she can trust people,” he said.

He also stressed that the women’s choices did not reduce Brand’s culpability: “Whatever women wear, wherever they go, indeed whatever they drink, they retain the right to say no and to demand justice from the criminal courts when sexual predators like you, Russell Brand, act without their consent.”

Reuters footage below covers the November 5 verdict.

The court also weighed Brand’s conduct since the crimes against the seriousness of the offenses.

“The mitigation in your case is the fact you had no significant previous convictions, and the 17 years that have passed since the last of these offences, and the life you have led since, doing good work and especially in assisting those wrestling with addictions, often by funding treatment,” Judge Bennathan said.

He noted that sentencing guidelines limit the weight given to good character in serious sexual offenses, then explained his decision: “Nonetheless, in my view it would be wrong to disregard your mitigation all together, so I will reduce the sentence I would otherwise have imposed for the rape by a year.”

Prosecutors argued that Brand’s fame worsened the harm because the women kept seeing him in public coverage and helped him commit the crimes. Judge Bennathan distinguished those two points.

“I have taken the first aspect into account in assessing the harm you caused but I regard the second as an intrinsic part of each offence. I also need to be careful I am not punishing you more because you are famous,” he said.

Judge Bennathan also explained why he had not ordered a pre-sentence report.

“These crimes are far too serious for anything other than immediate custody, and given how long ago these offences were committed and the evidence of your wife, I accept there is no sound evidential basis for me to conclude you pose a risk for the future,” Judge Bennathan said.

Brand will receive credit for the days he has already spent in custody. Judge Bennathan also set out what follows prison.

“You will serve two thirds of that sentence then be released on licence and will be liable to be recalled into custody if you breach its terms. On your release you will also be indefinitely subject to the notification requirements under the Sexual Offences Act 2003.”