In the decades he’s spent on our screens, Russell Brand’s been a comedian, an actor, a presenter and a political anarchist. Now he has been convicted of rape and sexual assaults. Emine Sinmaz reports
We’ve seen many iterations of Russell Brand. Camp Camden goth. Outrageous standup and TV host. Hollywood star. Political anarchist. Reborn Christian conspiracy theorist.
Russell Brand always wanted to be famous. And when he attained celebrity in the 2000s, he was seen as a breath of fresh air. Hyper-camp, hyper-sexual, hyper-articulate, he was considered edgy by TV and radio commissioners and funnier than anyone else by his fans. A Guardian columnist and the Sun’s shagger of the year, Brand was supposed to be ironic, a pop culture provocateur, journalist Sophie Heawood tells Nosheen Iqbal. But in the last decade, it’s become harder to remember why he was so celebrated.
For the last three weeks, Brand has stood trial on six charges of serious sexual offences. On Thursday 5 November, he arrived in court with his wife and, after over a day of deliberations, a jury of 12 – eight men and four women – delivered their verdict and Brand was found guilty of rape and sexual assault. Emine Sinmaz was at the court throughout the trial and tells Nosheen what emerged.
