GUILTY: Russell Brand Convicted of Rape and Three Sexual Assaults, Acquitted on Three Counts, Remanded in Custody, Sentencing Monday

0:08 Good morning. This is Daily Crime and Justice from Calaroga Media, powered by AI. I'm Garrett Fisher. It's Friday, November 6, 2026. Guilty. Guilty. Yesterday afternoon in London, after nine hours and 13 minutes of deliberations over three days, a jury found Russell Brand guilty of raping a young woman at his home in 2009 and guilty of sexually assaulting three other women. On three other charges, including two counts of rape, the jury found him not guilty. Brand stood straight and still in the dock and showed no reaction. Within minutes, the judge told him he faced a significant prison term. And for the first time since this trial began, he didn't walk out the front door of Southern Crown Court. He was led down to the cells by two guards. For five weeks, I've kept a promise not to tell you what I think. Today, I will. Let's get into it. This segment discusses rape and sexual assault. I'll keep it to what the court heard and decided without graphic detail. If you're just catching up, Russell Brand, 51, the comedian, actor, and podcaster, went on trial at Southwark Crown Court on October 12th. He faced seven charges involving six women between 1999 and 2009. The women came forward after a 2023 investigation by the Sunday Times and Channel 4, and the prosecution said none of them had ever met. Brand pleaded not guilty to everything

1:39 and told police the accusations had been invented or reimagined after the documentary. Halfway through the trial, the judge found there wasn't enough evidence on one charge and replaced it with a lesser one. Then Brand took the stand himself for four hours, admitting a reckless and promiscuous past and denying every crime. The judge had told the jury he would only accept unanimous verdicts. So every one of these was agreed by all 12 jurors, eight men and four women. Here they are in order. Count one, rape. The first complainant said Brand raped her in a hotel room during the Labor Party conference in Bournemouth in 1999 before he was famous. Not guilty. Count two, attempted indecent assault. The second complainant said that in 2001, at MTV's offices in London, Brand grabbed her arm and tried to drag her into a men's toilet. Not guilty. Counts three and four involved the third complainant at a party in a Soho bar in 2004. Count three, sexual assault for grabbing her breasts moments after meeting her. Guilty. Count four, rape. The allegation that he then pulled her into a toilet and forced her into a sex act. Not guilty. Count five, sexual assault.

2:50 The fourth complainant said that in 2004 or 2005, at the London radio station Choice FM, Brand, a stranger to her, pinned her against a wall, groping and kissing her while the people with him did nothing. Guilty. Count six, rape. The fifth complainant said she met Brand after his show at the Hammersmith Apollo in 2009. went to his house in Hampstead a week later expecting to sleep with him, and that after consensual sex, he raped her, ignoring her as she told him to stop. Guilty. And count seven, sexual assault. The sixth complainant said that in 2009, while she was working with him on a Channel 4 project, Brand demanded a massage and put his head in her lap in front of his colleagues. Guilty. Four guilty, three not guilty. Sky News reporters described the room. There was silence as the foreman read the verdicts. Brand stood looking straight ahead. In the family area, his wife, Laura, sank down in her seat, holding tightly to the hand of the woman beside her, who'd been praying moments before. His father, Ron, put his hand to his mouth. When Brand was led from the dock, Laura became emotional, and his security guard helped her out of the courtroom. Then the judge, Mr.

4:05 Justice Benethen, told Brand to sit down and said, You've been convicted of a number of offenses, including rape. The consequence of that is inevitably a significant custodial term. He said he'd have to remand Brand into custody. Brand's barrister, Ian Winter, asked for bail until sentencing, in his words, as an act of humanity to say goodbye to his children. The judge said he regretted any hardship to Brand's children, but that Brand was responsible for it and refused. Brand will spend the weekend in jail and will be sentenced on Monday morning. In England, rape carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. Sentencing guidelines for a single offense generally run from 4 to 19 years, depending on the circumstances, and the judge will also sentence him for the three sexual assaults. Brand can appeal. After the verdict, the Metropolitan Police said Brand had repeatedly claimed in interviews that he didn't recognize the women and that as the case approached trial, his account changed. The Met also told Sky News that a separate investigation into rape allegations by two more women remains ongoing and that files have been sent to the Crown Prosecution Service. He has not been charged in connection with those allegations. Now, as promised, here's what I think.

5:21 I think this is what a careful jury looks like. It would have been easy to treat six women as a package to decide that Russell Brand is either a predator or the victim of a media campaign and vote accordingly. This jury didn't. It went charge by charge. Look at the guilty verdicts. The rape conviction is the case where a woman told people what happened, starting in 2009, years before any documentary. Her parents, a sexual health nurse, her boss, her friends. And it's the case with the text exchange from Edinburgh months later, in which, she says, he wrote back, I'm sorry. Look at the not guilty verdicts. They include the oldest allegation, from 1999, where even the date was in doubt and the rape count from Soho, where the woman's own 999 call said he tried to. The jury didn't believe everything, and it didn't believe nothing. It drew lines where the evidence drew them. I'll say one more thing, carefully, because there are still proceedings ahead. Not guilty doesn't mean those women lied. It means 12 people weren't sure, beyond a reasonable doubt, about events as long as 27 years ago.

6:29 That's the standard, and it's the right one. And the guilty verdicts on the sexual assault charges say something, too, about a man who grabbed and groped women at a party and at their places of work in front of people who, in one woman's words, just did nothing. One of these women talked about a culture of fear around upsetting an A-lister. For 20 years, that culture protected him. This week, it didn't. To all six women whose names you will never hear on this show or anywhere else, you were heard. Russell Brand will be sentenced Monday. We'll bring it to you. When we come back, Krista Pike goes to court again and the Birchmore Jury. Krista Pike, the Tennessee woman who survived the state's attempt to execute her on September 30th, is back in court, this time over where she's living. Last Friday, the same day she released her first public statement, her lawyers filed an emergency motion in federal court in Nashville. For most of her 30 years on death row, Pike was the only woman there, and she spent roughly three decades in what her lawyers describe as de facto solitary confinement. In 2022, she sued over it. A settlement in 2024 gave her an individualized plan. Work, shared meals, recreation, and supervised time with other women. Since she came back from the hospital last month, her lawyers say all of that is gone. According to the motion,

8:00 as reported by Fox 17 in Nashville, she's been kept in the prison infirmary, separated from other inmates. In a sworn declaration, Pike says she's still physically weak, with wounds on both arms, and is receiving wound care, treatment for nerve pain, and physical therapy remotely. She says she's afraid to go back to the high-security pod where she lived before because she couldn't defend herself if she were attacked. Her lawyers asked the state to house her in a separate area where women receive temporary medical care so she could heal and still have safe contact with other people. The state said no. An email from an assistant attorney general filed with the motion says the infirmary arrangement meets her needs as determined by her doctors and that talking about long-term housing is premature. The judge hasn't ruled. There's also a new detail from before the execution. According to a January court filing reported by People magazine, Pike's lawyers had warned the state that she'd been diagnosed with a rare blood disorder, a myeloproliferative neoplasm, which raised her platelet count and argued it made complications from lethal injection more likely.

9:06 They also noted her history of difficulty with blood draws and needles. The execution went ahead anyway. Tennessee hasn't said whether any of that factored into what went wrong. Its independent review is still underway. And in her statement last week, Pike said something that connects all of it. Since that night, she's been largely isolated, and that isolation brings its own kind of pain. There's a new governor-elect in Tennessee now, who takes office in January and inherits this case. Until then, Governor Bill Lee has said he expects her sentence to stand unless the courts decide otherwise. Colleen Slemmer was 19 years old. Someone has to say her name. And in Boston, the other jury we've been waiting on is about to go to work. Closing arguments in the federal trial of former Stoughton police detective Matthew Farwell are scheduled for this morning, 90 minutes per side, with jury discussion. to follow. Farwell is accused of strangling Sandra Birchmore, who was 23 and pregnant, in February of 2021, and staging her death as a suicide to keep her from exposing a sexual relationship prosecutors say began when she was 15 and he was her police mentor. He's pleaded not guilty, and his defense says she took her own life after he ended the relationship.

10:23 If he's convicted, he faces life in prison. Yesterday we walked you through the whole case. The short version? The prosecution's expert says the fractured bone in her neck and a mark from the strap's clasp show she was strangled, and that the scene was altered. The defense's experts say none of the physical evidence proves a homicide, and that Sandra had real risk factors for suicide. The jury has to be sure he killed her, and sure of why. We'll bring you the verdict as soon as it comes. And one more. As we recorded this episode, Florida was preparing to execute Jesse Guardado, convicted of murdering 75-year-old Jackie Malone in 2004. If it went ahead last night, it was Florida's 19th execution this year, tying its own record.

11:07 We'll confirm what happened on Monday. Sandra Birchmore was 23. Jackie Malone was 75. Someone has to say their names. When we come back the week ahead. That's the show for this week. And what a week. Here's my question for the Spotify crowd. Do you agree with the brand jury's verdicts? All seven of them. Which one would you have decided differently and why? Thank you. Coming up Monday, Russell Brand is sentenced in London. the Birchmore jury may have a verdict. And in the weeks ahead, hearings in the Brian Koberger and Alex Murdoch cases on November 13th, rulings in Lindsey Clancy's case on the 16th, and Florida's scheduled 20th execution on the 18th. Have a good weekend.

12:23 I'm Garrett Fisher. Do better. This episode of Daily Crime and Justice is produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence and is intended for news and commentary purposes only. It is not legal advice. Russell Brand has been convicted of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault and acquitted of two counts of rape and one count of attempted indecent assault. He may appeal. He has not been charged in connection with the separate allegations under police investigation. Matthew Farwell has pleaded not guilty and is presumed innocent. On Russell Brand, verdicts and courtroom details are as reported by Sky News, the BBC, the Associated Press and Variety.

13:05 Our description of English sentencing is a general summary. Under the Sexual Offenses Amendment Act, 1992, complainants in sexual offense cases in the United Kingdom are entitled to lifelong anonymity. On Krista Pike, details of the emergency motion are as reported by Fox 17 and WZTV. Details of the January filing are as reported by People. On Sandra Birchmore, as reported by NBC Boston, The Boston Globe, and Boston 25 News. On Jesse Guardado, the outcome of the scheduled execution was not known when this episode was recorded. If you or someone you know has been affected by sexual violence, you can call RAINN at 800-656-4673. In England and Wales, you can reach Rape Crisis at 0808-500-2222. If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, call or text 988-