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British actor Russell Brand was emotionless as he was sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison Monday, after a jury last week convicted him of raping one woman and sexually assaulting three more.
Judge Joel Bennathan handed down the sentence in Southwark Crown Court after the 51-year-old “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” actor was convicted Thursday on one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault. He had faced a maximum of up to life in prison.
Brand was cleared on two other rape charges and one charge of attempted indecent assault tied to the claims of three other women.
In his sentencing remarks, the judge blasted the disgraced comedian’s “casual, arrogant disregard of any woman’s right to say no to you.”
He was slapped with nine years for the count of rape plus 18 months for the three sexual assault charges, which will run consecutively.
Brand showed no emotion when the sentence was handed down but told his wife “we’ll be ok” as he was taken away by court officers.
He also mouthed “I love you” as he was escorted away.
“Whatever women wear, wherever they go, whatever they drink, they retain the right to say no and demand justice in the criminal courts when sexual predators like you, Mr Brand, act without their consent,” the judge told him.
The actor, however, is only likely to serve two-thirds of his sentence in custody, the BBC noted, due to UK Sentencing Council guidelines.
Meanwhile, the police have said the investigation is ongoing and they are looking into the claims of two more women who say they were also raped by Brand, including a 16-year-old.
Following the conviction, police released a Dec. 14, 2023, interview with Brand, showing him reading from a prepared statement in which he insisted all the sex he had was consensual, Page Six reported.
“I lead a very promiscuous life in the past, which I have spent years openly denouncing,” Brand could be seen saying as he sat by his lawyers and read from a piece of paper. “I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity.”
In a Jan. 17, 2024 interview, Brand, again reading from a paper, said all of the claims were “invented or reimagined” and blamed a documentary containing anonymous allegations for sparking a smear campaign against him.
Over the course of the three-week trial, jurors heard from six women who claimed Brand sexually assaulted them in separate incidents between 1999 and 2009.
Prosecutors said Brand was a “predator” who used his fame to sleep with women and didn’t care if they consented or not.
But lawyers for the “Get Him to the Greek” star blamed the 2023 documentary for sparking a wave of false accusations against him.
“The well of justice had been corrupted and contaminated,” Brand’s lawyer Ian Winter argued at trial.
Winter also told the jury to separate the fact that Brand didn’t treat women well from the alleged crimes he was accused of.
“It is not criminal to treat women unkindly before, during or after sex,” Winter said. “It is not, I am afraid, criminal to be disrespectful or rude or to act like a crazy idiot.”
Brand “had an immense amount of sex and none of it was unlawful,” the defense attorney said.
“Disgusting, distasteful, immoral, who cares?” Winter said. “It’s irrelevant to your consideration.”
Brand’s wife, Laura Gallacher, attended trial with him each day. The pair share three children.
Brand, who was briefly married to pop star Katy Perry, was taken into custody following his conviction since Bennathan said he’d be hitting him with “significant” time.
