Summary Brand, 51, showed no emotion as judge Joel Bennathan said he had acted with "staggering arrogance" and shown "contempt" for his victims, who had suffered significant and lasting harm.
LONDON (AFP) – British comedian and TV star Russell Brand was Monday jailed for more than 10 years for a string of sex offences including rape, as the judge told him he had been a "sexual predator" whose fame had protected him.
Brand, 51, showed no emotion as judge Joel Bennathan said he had acted with "staggering arrogance" and shown "contempt" for his victims, who had suffered significant and lasting harm.
"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.
The judge said Brand's status protected him until he was exposed in 2023 by journalists from the Sunday Times, The Times and the Channel 4 Dispatches programme, leading to women coming forward to make complaints to police.
Bennathan paid tribute to the "determination and bravery" of the women, adding Brand had repeatedly acted "how you liked and when you liked, unhindered by the rules by which decent people live".
Brand's wife Laura Gallacher, with whom he has three children, slumped in her seat in the public gallery of London's Southwark Crown Court as the total sentence of 10 years and six months was announced.
Brand told his wife, who has supported him in court throughout the case, "we'll be OK", before being led down to the cells.
The disgraced star was convicted by a jury last week of one rape and three sexual assaults committed against four women between 2004 and 2009.
Brand, who has reinvented himself as an online Christian guru, held a string of prayer beads and made the sign of the cross before one of his victims personally read out her impact statement from behind a screen.
She said she had been left "traumatised" by the assault in a London bar in 2004.
"For many years as his star was rising it was impossible to escape seeing him all over the media, being celebrated for his disgusting behaviour against women like it was all a joke," she told the court.
