Russell Brand’s father has claimed his convicted son is ‘the victim’ and described his ten-year-and-six-month prison sentence as ‘unfair’.
Ron Brand said the women whose evidence led to the comedian’s conviction had ‘chased and harassed him’.
The 82-year-old also said he ‘didn’t care’ that his son had been found guilty in court and alleged that the jury had been corrupted.
He spoke to reporters after Brand was sentenced to ten years and six months in prison for raping one woman and sexually assaulting three others.
Asked whether he had a message for the victims, Ron replied: ‘The victims, what victims? What, Russell?’
When the reporter clarified that she meant his son’s victims, he said: ‘The girls you mean, who chased and harassed him.’
Ron said he ‘didn’t care’ about his son’s conviction and criticised ‘the system’.
Asked if he was saying that he did not trust the justice system, he replied: ‘I don’t believe it on the basis of what I’ve just watched. See it on social media… it’s easy to find the right jury.’
‘Go on Facebook and see what people are saying… Are you saying you couldn’t go on social media and see what people are saying and find people who are attacking him.’
Asked how his son would cope in prison, Ron answered: ‘Yeah, he’s strong, he’s strong.’
When asked how his daughter-in-law, Laura Gallacher, would cope, he said: ‘She’s strong as well.’
In his autobiography, Brand, 51, wrote that Ron hired prostitutes for him as a teenager and introduced him to pornography while he was still at primary school.
He also described how Ron would bring women back to his flat and leave him to his own devices while he had sex.
Ron Brand spoke to reporters after his son was sentenced to ten years and six months for raping one woman and sexually assaulting three others
Asked whether he had a message for his son’s victims, Ron replied: ‘The victims, what victims? What, Russell?’
Brand was convicted at Southwark Crown Court of abusing four women after using his celebrity status to target them
The trial heard that Brand used his celebrity status to target women. He was convicted at Southwark Crown Court of offences against four victims.
One fan told the court she was raped by Brand at the age of 21 in 2009 at his luxury London home. Female staff members from Channel 4, MTV and Capital Radio also described being sexually assaulted by the television star.
Mr Justice Bennathan condemned Brand’s ‘staggering arrogance’ as he sentenced him to ten and a half years in prison for rape and three counts of sexual assault.
The judge told Brand: ‘About 20 years ago, Russell Brand, you were becoming famous, you were clever, and in many people’s eyes you were funny and charismatic.
‘You had also become a sexual predator.’
He said Brand’s ‘status protected you’ until journalists from The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4 Dispatches exposed a series of sexual misconduct allegations in 2023, prompting women to report their complaints to police.
The judge said Brand had shown a ‘casual arrogant disregard to any woman’s right to say no to you’. His fame, he added, appeared to make Brand believe ‘you could act when you liked and how you liked’.
The evidence also showed that members of Brand’s entourage during his years of celebrity had ‘indulged your dreadful behaviour’, the judge said.
Brand’s wife, Laura Gallacher, sat only a few feet from the disgraced comedian in the glass-walled dock and has vowed to support her husband.
Brand showed little emotion as his sentence was delivered. As he was led away to the cells, he briefly turned to his wife and told her: ‘We’ll be OK.’
The judge imposed a nine-year term for the rape and added a further 18 months for the three sexual assaults.
One of the victims described Brand as ‘a sexual predator who has no remorse for how his behaviour has impacted my life’.
Brand’s father Ron leaves Southwark Crown Court after his son’s sentencing
Laura Gallacher leaves Southwark Crown Court after Brand was sentenced to ten and a half years
The rape victim told the court that she had been a major Brand fan before attending one of his performances at the Hammersmith Apollo in 2009. The comedian selected her from the audience to join him backstage.
She willingly took part in a threesome at the venue before agreeing to go to Brand’s £2.3million townhouse in Hampstead Village, north London, to have sex.
However, she said the encounter became rape when Brand had anal sex with her despite her pleas to stop and pinned her down so tightly that she struggled to breathe.
She told the court that Brand’s growing fame—including roles in Hollywood films such as Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Arthur, his marriage to singer Katy Perry, and later television, radio, stage and podcast appearances—left her frightened to report the alleged attack for years.
‘I felt that if I reported him, I would not be believed,’ she said. ‘His fame, wealth and influence created a power imbalance which made me feel powerless.’
The woman gave evidence that she had willingly gone to Brand’s home for sex, but said the evening began in an unsettling way when he made her strip, shower and brush her teeth.
She described the initial sex as ‘awkward’ and unenjoyable, although consensual. She said it became rape when Brand began having anal sex without her consent.
Afterwards, she said, Brand made her clean the bed before coldly sending her away.
Brand was also convicted of sexually assaulting a Channel 4 employee during a recording session in 2009, shortly after he began dating Ms Perry.
The woman was working alone with Brand and members of his entourage when, she said, he threatened to disrupt the recording unless she massaged him. He then knelt down and thrust his head into her groin.
She told the court that her complaint to Channel 4 was ‘brushed under the carpet by senior management’.
She said: ‘There was a culture at the time which meant I felt I had to just carry on and not talk about it any more.
‘Which meant I did not give myself time to lament on it, boxed it up and pushed it aside.’
The woman said she had been ‘quite innocent’ before Brand’s attack and that his actions ‘burst that bubble’.
She added: ‘I felt powerless in that moment, and it had a knock-on effect on my confidence because I felt like I had no control on that day and there was nothing I could do about what he did to me.’
The jury also found Brand guilty of sexually assaulting an MTV employee at a Soho bar in 2004 during a birthday celebration.
The woman said Brand, wearing a ‘weird maniacal grin’, grabbed her breasts within seconds of meeting her.
The judge said she was ‘extremely upset and traumatised’, noting that she later walked through London while crying on the phone to a friend.
Brand was further convicted of sexually assaulting a Capital Radio employee after encountering her in a corridor in 2005.
She told the court that Brand kissed her ‘sloppily’, groped her and laughed when she eventually managed to push him away.
The judge said members of Brand’s entourage had ‘no doubt… thought it was outrageous, laddish behaviour only you could get away with’.
But he told Brand: ‘It was outrageous and possibly laddish, but it was also a criminal offence, and as it turns out you haven’t got away with it.’
In her victim impact statement, the woman said: ‘Russell Brand is a sexual predator who has no remorse for how his behaviour has impacted my life.
‘I just hope that he is not allowed to hurt any more women.’
Brand was remanded in custody immediately after his conviction on Thursday last week.
As he entered the dock this morning, he mouthed to his wife: ‘It’ll be OK, I don’t know how, but it will.’ He was also seen praying and making the sign of the cross with his hand as the victims’ statements were read to the court.
Defence barrister Ian Winter KC told the court that Ms Gallacher—the sister of television presenter Kirsty Gallacher and daughter of Ryder Cup-winning golfer Bernard Gallacher—was coping with ‘total devastation’ following the guilty verdicts.
He said: ‘I’m afraid words are completely inadequate to truly try to convey to your Lordship the total devastation she’s experiencing.
‘Currently (they) are wrestling with how to exactly explain to a child who’s just turned ten what has happened here.
‘It brings home the consequences of this conduct to totally innocent people who have been caught up in it.’
Ms Gallacher gave evidence in her husband’s defence during the trial. At the sentencing hearing, Mr Winter submitted six character references, including one from Georgina Baillie, granddaughter of the late actor Andrew Sachs.
In her statement, Ms Baillie—who was at the centre of the 2008 Sachsgate scandal involving Brand—described how the former comedian had helped her recover from alcohol addiction. She wrote: ‘I still choose to support him as a person I know him to be.’
Brand, who has already spent four nights at HMP Wandsworth, is expected to serve two-thirds of his sentence before being released on licence.
He will remain on the sex offenders’ register for life.
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Inside Russell Brand’s celebrity circle: From David Walliams to Jonathan Ross and Noel Fielding—and those who ‘abandoned him’ during the rape trial
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