BBC accused of enabling Russell Brand after rape and sexual assault conviction

Russell Brand once said that “people will let you be a nutter as long as they are making money out of it”. On Thursday, a London jury found him guilty of rape, and the people who made the money are now being asked how much they let him get away with.

The 51-year-old comedian, actor and former BBC Radio 2 presenter was convicted at Southwark Crown Court of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault. He was remanded in custody until sentencing on Monday 9 November, and Mr Justice Bennathan told the court that “obviously a custodial sentence of some length will result”.

As the verdicts were read, his wife, Laura Gallacher, wept in the public gallery. Brand stood completely still in the dock before they took him down to the cells.

READ MORE: Russell Brand found guilty of rape and sexual assault

The BBC Back in the spotlight

The BBC is still dealing with the fallout from Huw Edwards and Jimmy Savile, and the verdict adds fresh pressure. Channel 4 and MTV are also facing questions.

Liz Kershaw, who spent more than 30 years at the BBC as a radio DJ, accused the corporation of having “enabled Brand’s behaviour”.

“Maybe his enablers should finally have been brought to book. Media executives, comedy club promoters. His agent,” she wrote in The Telegraph.

Brand once claimed that Lesley Douglas, then controller of Radio 2 and 6 Music, “loved me and gave me lots of room – so I took that room”. He said this extended to letting him use the BBC’s disabled toilets for sex with radio competition winners.

An internal BBC report in 2023 found that numerous complaints about Brand had been ignored, and that staff feared bosses would back him. The rape and two of the sexual assaults took place only months after he left the BBC.

Douglas did not respond to a request for comment. Her spokesman has previously said: “Ms Douglas did not at any time encourage, enable and/or fail herself to take any adequate steps within her power with regard to the conduct of Mr Brand of which she was aware.”

Offences in media workplaces

Several of the offences took place in or near Brand’s workplaces. In the mid-2000s he groped a woman at the Capital Radio offices while his entourage watched. In 2009 he sexually assaulted a Channel 4 employee during a recording, after two of his production team told her to give him a massage. He was also convicted of a 2009 rape at his Hampstead home and a 2004 sexual assault in a Soho bar.

He was acquitted of three other charges, including one alleged attempted assault at MTV’s London offices in 2001. Brand denied all charges. Prosecutors are now considering two further rape charges.

‘You f---ed it’

Ian Winter KC, Brand’s barrister, argued throughout the trial that media coverage had “poisoned the well”. As he left the courtroom, he confronted a Sunday Times journalist: “I hope you are pleased with yourself.”

She replied: “I’m pleased justice has been done.”

“Well, it wasn’t. You f---ed it,” Winter said.

The prosecution described Brand as a “ruthless, calculated and manipulative sexual predator”. Senior Crown prosecutor David Roberts said: “Russell Brand was predatory and used his celebrity status to commit sexual crimes.”

Brand rose from Channel 4’s Big Brother spin-offs to Radio 2, the Brit Awards and Hollywood. He has since moved into podcasting from Florida, and Bear Grylls baptised him in the Thames in 2024. In police footage released after the verdict, he pulls out what appears to be a Bible and a rosary. He has found religion. The broadcasters who gave him “lots of room” are still looking for an answer.