It is not often that I comment on court cases. But the Russell Brand trial seems significant, because he’s been a huge cultural phenomenon in the UK for years, and to witness his downfall has been both fascinating and horrible in equal measure.

Despite several weeks of the trial, he was found guilty on November 5th, 2026 of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault from 2004-2009. Yet more women are still coming forward. At this point in time, we don’t know how long he will serve. He will be sentenced on Monday.

Disconcertingly, it seems all of the clues were there years ago. We just didn’t take them seriously, because of his trademark filthy /ironic humour and unabashed reputation as a promiscuous dickhead, and media tart. It was the age of what became known as Indie Sleaze. He epitomised a new kind of lad, a dandy who could slip easily from articulate to puerile. I often found him extremely quick -witted, if arrogant , but enjoyed his series ‘Ponderland’, on Channel 4 in 2007.

What really bugged me wasn’t the verbose attempts at intellectual discourse (he’s intelligent, but he’s hardly Will Self) but how he lurched to the left, espoused Labour, saw himself as a revolutionary, then just as quickly became a shill for MAGA and the conspiracy theorists when the dollars began rolling in. Worse yet, his claims to a newfound Christianity were highly dubious, and seemed entirely performative , as by that time, claims about his predatory behaviour were becoming ubiquitous. He was profligate. I even know someone, a performance artist, who said she’d heard (on the circuit) some terrible things about him and his misogyny at least three years ago.

Russell Brand showed us who he really was, though, years before being sent to prison. Even in his memoir, ‘My Booky Wook’, so-called because of ‘A Clockwork Orange’s language nadsat, released in 2007, he effectively confessed to coercive control.

He recounted a story from the early 1990s when he was a teenager. He described following a female classmate (whom he’d been fixated on) for 200 miles from London to Wigan against her wishes, entering her family home, and getting into her bed.

.

The full passage reads:

“I lied and danced and evoked the spirit of Pan till reluctantly she removed her bra, I used tears and emotional blackmail to secure the immolation of her knickers.”

So the predation was already present. Imagine not learning from this incident that entitlement is not an appropriate means of behaving. Imagine this was your sister, aunt, friend, or even mother on the receiving end. He once memorably stated his preferred age group as “sixteen- death”. Not so amusing coming from a middle-aged man. A childish tantrum from him when challenged was not uncommon. He strikes me very much as a sexual narcissist.

https://youtu.be/6YU5dt7F7hs?is=ta7yBvwI0cNFQNy5

The chasm between the loveable rogue and total scumbug thus began to widen, as more women came forward in the recent ‘Dispatches’ documentary, part of an ongoing investigation between Channel 4, The Sunday Times and The Times newspapers.

30 Oct 2026 — Prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones KC said six different women who do not know each other had come forward to accuse Brand of attacking them.

Nov 5th 2026- Brand is found guilty of one count of rape, three counts of sexual assault at Southwark Central Court, London.

Russell with Laura his wife by his side during the trial.

Another passage from ‘My Booky Wook’ reads:

“As I escorted Michaela [a lap dancer who slapped him after sex] through the front door, I felt very strongly that I needed to avenge the slap . . . I spat in her face.”

How we had once laughed (although not at his memoir, or subsequent horrific stories). But “that joke”, as his hero Morrissey once sang, “isn’t funny anymore”. Let’s hope his current wife Laura and their children get away to safety. It’s such a tragic punchline.