Fame

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Russell Brand is going to prison. A few hours ago, the judge who has been presiding over Brand’s four-week trial for three counts of rape and three of sexual assault handed down a sentence of a total of 10 and a half years in prison. Brand will have to serve two-thirds of that time before he becomes eligible for parole.

This has been a long, long time coming. For many years, Brand’s abusive behavior was an open secret in his industry, but the true extent of his crimes was only made public in a documentary produced by Channel 4, and accompanying reporting in the Sunday Times of London, released in 2023. This trial was the culmination of the police investigation that followed, and it’s been an ugly one.…