Russell Brand was convicted Thursday of rape and sexual assault in a London, U.K., court.
He was found guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault involving four women. He was acquitted of two rape counts and one count of attempted indecent assault.
The British actor and comedian will be sentenced on Monday, Judge Joel Bennathan said, according to the Associated Press. He was taken into custody.
Brand, 51, denied the charges and pleaded not guilty to the allegations dating back 20 years. He testified that as a young man he had an insatiable sexual appetite and led a promiscuous life but had never forced anyone to engage with him sexually against their will.
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The jury deliberations lasted more than eight hours over the course of two days.
Brand rose to fame in the early 2000s as a TV and BBC radio host. He appeared in Hollywood films including Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him to the Greek and was married to pop star Katy Perry from 2010 to 2012.
In recent years, Brand moved away from mainstream media and built a significant online following, where he creates content on religious devotion, wellness, and conspiracy theories.
He said the criminal case had a devastating impact on his life and family.
“My entire life has been consumed by these events, these allegations, these accusations,” he said, the AP reported.
His lawyers argued that the alleged victims were undermined by the fact that they only went to police years after the alleged assaults, and following the broadcast of a 2023 documentary that contained anonymous allegations against Brand.
None of the alleged victims reported the assaults at the time of the crimes because they felt ashamed, guilty and feared they would be blamed, the prosecutor told the jury.
Brand testified that friends and colleagues had abandoned him.
His wife, Laura, who accompanied him to court, testified as a character witness in his defence, but no one with relevant evidence was willing to give evidence on his behalf, Brand said.
In an April podcast interview with Megyn Kelly, he said that he had “exploitative” consensual sex with a 16-year-old girl when he was 30 years old.
During the podcast, Brand described his past self as “selfish” and an “exploiter of women.”
“I did sleep with a 16-year-old when I was 30. When I was 30, I was a very different person. I was a lot younger, and I was an immature 30-year-old,” he said.
“Me as a 30-year-old, I have no business having consensual sex with women that were just past girls, that were just over the age of consent.”
Brand — who says he has since become a devout Christian added that his access to drugs and women at the height of his fame provided him with an opportunity for “endless consent” that led him to be a “hedonist” and a “fool.”
— with files from the Associated Press
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