Russell Brand is behind bars having been found guilty of raping a fan and sexually assaulting three women at the height his showbiz career, callously treating them like “amusements” in a quest to sleep with 5,000 women.

Jurors took less than nine hours to find the comedian guilty of offences against four women between 2004 and 2009, by which time he had soared to “staggering fame”, following a dramatic four-week trial.

However, he was acquitted of orally raping one of the victims in a bar toilet in 2004, raping another woman at Labour Party conference in 1999 and one count of attempting to indecently assault an MTV worker in 2001.

The Essex-born celebrity, who appeared in Hollywood films Get Him to the Greek and Forgetting Sarah Marshall , was emotionless in the dock of Southwark Crown Court as the verdicts were returned on Thursday.

His wife, Laura Brand, was visibly emotional and was led from court with his entourage after her husband was taken to the cells, having been warned he faces a “significant…