British comedian and actor Russell Brand has been sentenced to ten years and six months in prison after being convicted of rape and three counts of sexual assault, a verdict that has put another of Jemima Khan’s former partners behind bars. Brand, 51, was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court in London on Monday, November 9, four days after a jury found him guilty. The case has drawn attention beyond Britain, because Jemima Khan, the former wife of Pakistan’s ex-prime minister Imran Khan, was once in a relationship with Brand, and Imran Khan himself has been in prison since August 2023.
Brand Convicted of Rape and Sexual Assault
The jury convicted Brand of raping one woman and sexually assaulting three others, with the offences taking place between 2004 and 2009, as he rose to fame. The court heard he groped an MTV worker at a party in a Soho bar in 2004, assaulted a Choice FM worker at the Capital Radio studios in 2005, and raped a 21-year-old fan after a stand-up show at the Hammersmith Apollo in 2009. Brand denied the allegations throughout, insisting his encounters had been consensual, but the jury rejected that defence after around eight hours of deliberation.
Brand stood trial on seven charges involving six women; the jury acquitted him of two further rape charges and one attempted indecent assault. Passing sentence, Mr Justice Joel Bennathan told Brand he had become a sexual predator as he rose to fame, acting as he liked and when he liked. The judge imposed nine years for the rape, plus nine months, 18 months and eight months for the assaults. The assault terms run together, but after the rape sentence, bringing the total to ten years and six months. Brand must serve two-thirds in custody before release on licence, and will stay on the sex offenders’ register for life.
The judge weighed points in Brand’s favour, including no previous convictions, 17 years since his last offence, and time spent helping people struggling with addiction, cutting a year from the sentence. Brand was taken into custody after the verdict last Thursday and spent the four nights before sentencing at HMP Wandsworth in south-west London. His wife Laura Gallacher, his partner of nearly ten years and mother of his three children, was in the public gallery throughout the trial and again for the sentencing.
Brand Previously Dated Jemima Khan
Brand was previously in a relationship with Jemima Goldsmith, widely known in Pakistan as Jemima Khan. The two were publicly linked in 2013 and stayed together for roughly a year before separating in 2014. Jemima was married to Imran Khan from 1995 until their divorce in 2004, and they have two sons. Her link to Brand has long drawn curiosity in Pakistan, where she remains well known years after her marriage to the former prime minister ended. At his peak in the 2000s Brand was one of Britain’s most recognisable entertainers, hosting BBC radio and starring in films, before reinventing himself as a political commentator with a large online following.
Imran Khan Is Also in Jail
The sentencing means two of Jemima Khan’s former partners are now in prison at the same time. Imran Khan has been incarcerated since August 2023 and remains at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, having been convicted in several cases since his removal from office in 2022. His imprisonment has dominated Pakistani politics for more than three years, with his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, demanding his release and calling the cases politically motivated, a claim the authorities reject. For many in Pakistan, the news from a London courtroom carried an unexpected echo, linking a British celebrity trial to the country’s own most prominent political prisoner. Jemima Khan has stayed largely out of the public eye and has not commented on the conviction, and there is no suggestion she was involved.
Brand Remains Under Investigation
Brand’s legal troubles may not be over even now that he has been sentenced. London’s Metropolitan Police confirmed he remains under investigation over two further alleged rapes, which have not yet led to charges. One allegation involves a woman reportedly 16 at the time, when Brand was 30. Police have not said when a decision on further charges might be made. The case began with a joint report by The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches in September 2023, setting out allegations from several women. Brand was charged in April 2025, and the case moved slowly to trial, with Brand repeatedly denying the allegations.
The sentence brings a dramatic fall to an end, at least for now, for a man who once moved freely between comedy, film, radio and online fame. Whether further charges follow will depend on the continuing police investigation, and Brand’s legal team has not yet said whether he intends to appeal. For now the court has spoken, and the ten-and-a-half-year term handed down in London stands as one of the most severe sentences ever given to a British celebrity in a sexual offences case, a measure of how seriously the court viewed crimes committed two decades ago.
