Russell Brand has been convicted of rape and sexual assault against four women and has been sentenced to 10½ years in prison. The offences took place many years ago, but suddenly, after he began criticising the authorities and became a Christian, the police issued a call for people to come forward with complaints against the comedian. He is now behind bars, and three children and a wife will have to live without a father and husband for several years. Whether Brand was a monster is perhaps impossible to determine, but the truth is that the long arm of the law is particularly keen to punish those who criticise the official narrative especially harshly.
It was this week that Russell Brand, 52, was convicted at Southwark Crown Court in London by a unanimous jury for offences that took place between 2004 and 2009. The evidence consisted of the women’s own witness statements, as well as documents and accounts from over a hundred other witnesses, and Brand’s own statements. This article is not primarily about whether Brand was guilty or not. The court has spoken, and the jury was unanimous. We know, in any case, that Brand was an unrestrained, boundary-crossing and sex-addicted individual, based on what he himself has said. We also know that the left found this perfectly acceptable back when he was their poster boy. Brand was a popular figure in Hollywood and also took on assignments for Labour. Both the current Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, and the Foreign Secretary, Ed Miliband, were among his fans. He was interviewed by Miliband in 2015 as part of Miliband’s campaign to win the party leadership (which he failed to secure). Burnham praised Brand for using his celebrity status to help others.
Back when Brand was a hero to the left, he was involved in what is known in Norwegian as ‘wild partying’ and was even a sex addict. He has spoken openly about this in his autobiography. He boasted about having sex with women in the disabled toilets at the BBC, and talked about his sex life to anyone who would listen. Everyone knew this, of course, and no one took any action. Women swarmed around him like bees around a jar of honey. One of them later regretted what had happened and succeeded in having him convicted. Others who accused him of rape were unsuccessful on this occasion, but he was also convicted of three counts of sexual assault. The authorities are also urging other women to come forward, so that he can be tried again and perhaps have to serve an even longer prison sentence.
The evidence boils down to one person’s word against another’s. We are supposed to ‘believe all women’ – and that is what the jury did in this case. Without having sat on the jury oneself, it is impossible to say whether one would have agreed with them. It is, however, a fact that there is no concrete, physical evidence. One could almost say it would have been a miracle if Brand hadn’t degraded any women during his career as Romeo. He wasn’t the sort of man you’d want your girlfriend or daughter to go on a date with.
Those of us who have been around for a while, and others who have given it some thought, know that such a lifestyle is incompatible with good morals and sound values. Brand realised this too as he grew a little older. In recent years, he has got married, had three children and become a Christian. During the Covid pandemic, he was one of those worth listening to. He criticised everything from vaccine mandates to lockdowns, and his motto was – and still is – “stay free”. It was almost prophetic, or ironic, if you will.
It was when Brand became a respectable, Christian family man who criticised the authorities that he was no longer comme il faut in the eyes of the establishment. The media went after him because he had a huge audience – 6.6 million followers on YouTube – and used his platform to discredit the authorities’ narrative. Where other media outlets failed, Brand didn’t mince his words:
