Russell Brand joins long list of abusers hiding in plain sight

It’s a long list of shame. This rather drab court building by the banks of the river Thames was also the scene of guilty verdicts against the likes of 1970s glam rock star Gary Glitter, the entertainer Rolf Harris and the PR guru Max Clifford. All of them famous, and all of them sexual abusers.

And just like them — and the most notorious sexual predator to cheat justice, Jimmy Savile — Brand was hiding in plain sight for years.

With his larger-than-life persona, outlandish outfits and clever grasp of language, Brand stood out and rocketed to fame, and now infamy.

He was certainly different, and for a long time the media couldn’t get enough of him and his outrageous personality. He was everywhere, from the television show Big Brother’s Big Mouth to BBC Radio 2 to sold-out arenas with his comedy performances.

Brand quickly graduated from stand-up and stage to TV, radio and even two Hollywood films and a (very brief) marriage to the US pop star Katy Perry. There was a time when he had the entertainment world at his feet — until he didn’t.

But in so much of his words and comedy there were clues about how he viewed women and sex. In some cases, the blatant misogyny shone through. He was often graphic in his descriptions of sexual acts and for a lot of the time the audience laughed along and lapped it up.

What they couldn’t possibly have known was that not all of his partners were willing participants.

The prosecution even used some of his stand-up routines against him, pointedly telling the jury that he had once joked on stage that his age range was “16 to death”. Excerpts from his autobiography were also used against him.

The prosecution painted a picture of a predator with an "insatiable" sexual appetite who used his fame to attract women and who viewed them as “disposable”. One former friend from the early 2000s told the trial that Brand was on a mission to sleep with 5,000 women, something which he denied in court.

What had been scheduled to be a six-week trial actually wrapped up in just over three weeks, partly because his defence consisted only of evidence from himself and his wife, Laura Brand. The mother of his three children was the only person who went to court to speak on his behalf.

Brand’s defence barrister said there were people out there who “wouldn’t touch him with a bargepole” as a result of the publicity surrounding the trial and the allegations. He also pointed out that he had been asked to stay away from a top hospital in London where one of his children was having heart surgery because of the fall-out from the women’s claims.

The comedian was charged with a total of seven offences — including three of rape — after six women went to police with allegations following a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary in 2023. A newspaper investigation ran alongside it.

The women did not know each other and the charges spanned a decade, from 1999 to 2009, from before he was famous to pretty much the peak of his stardom.

His defence lawyer argued in court that the documentary and newspaper articles “poisoned the well” of public opinion against Brand. But the jury sided with the women.

That documentary was pivotal in bringing him to justice. Prior to its broadcast nobody had dared to accuse him of sexual offences.

Many had scratched their heads as he racked up huge subscriber numbers on YouTube peddling all sorts of fantastical opinions. Conspiracies, Christianity, politics, the media — you name it, he had a view on it and was prepared to spout it and make money from it.

Brand was articulate and intelligent and had a way with words, but often his judgement was called into question.

The British public had squirmed in 2008 after he left a rude message with fellow broadcaster Jonathan Ross on the voicemail of the beloved Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs about his granddaughter, during a radio show. (Brand had had a brief relationship with her).

The BBC suspended Ross, while Brand flew off to America, seemingly unscathed from that tawdry episode.

That was the same year he made his Hollywood debut and two years later he made a follow-up film. It seemed like nothing would ever stick to the wild child of British comedy. Russell could do and say whatever he wanted and nobody could do a thing about it. Or so he thought.

Perhaps some of his victims believed this too, but then that Channel 4 documentary aired, the dam burst and the claims of sexual wrongdoing kept coming. He was engulfed by it.

His downfall has been a long time coming too, given that the first of the allegations went back to the late 1990s before he was a household name.

And what a spectacular fall this has been for a comedian who was once the hottest ticket in town, had Los Angeles at his feet and was earning serious money, hanging out with celebrities and marrying American pop royalty.

In recent years he has become a born again Christian (even getting baptised in the river Thames in Oxfordshire) and has grown a huge following online.

But for all the fame and followers, the films and the money, Brand’s future now will most likely be behind bars, just like his fellow Southwark Crown Court alumni Glitter, Harris and Clifford.

It was telling that not a single celebrity friend was prepared to go to court and give evidence in person in defence of Russell Brand. He was all alone, his wife Laura the only person prepared to stand up and speak out for him in that courtroom.

And as much as his defence team sought to blame the media for his plight, had it not been for that meticulously researched TV documentary in 2023, Brand may well have got away with it.

I wonder will there be a follow-up?