Russell Brand's ex-girlfriend accused him of violence after the sentence was handed down

Sentence and a new public accusation on the same day

On Monday, the court sentenced 51-year-old Russell Brand to 10 years and 6 months in prison for rape and sexual assault: the jury found him guilty of the anal rape of a woman at his home in 2009, as well as three counts of sexual assault against three other women. At the hearing, the judge said Brand had displayed a 'daily arrogant disregard for the right of any woman to say no to you', and that his fame allowed him to believe he 'could act when he wanted and how he wanted'.

Jemima Goldsmith's statement

That same evening, 52-year-old Jemima Goldsmith, who dated Brand for about a year around 2014, published a lengthy statement on the social network X in which she accused him of 'violence, coercive control and abuse'. According to her, in 2014, during a 'violent incident', she 'had to call the police to have him removed from my house', but she did not press charges, fearing that press attention would affect her then-teenage children. She wrote that her pain 'pales in comparison to what the women who testified in court went through', but that this period 'left lasting consequences'. Goldsmith added that she had not seen or been in contact with Brand since 2014, had helped the journalists who exposed the allegations against him, and was ready to testify about his 'cruelty' if they had been sued over their publications.

The dispute over the 2015 court injunction

Separately, Goldsmith commented on reports about a court injunction that she and Brand obtained in October 2015, which barred a woman named Sylvia Berki from speaking — including to the police — about an alleged assault by Brand at her home a year earlier. According to Goldsmith, Berki came to her home on 7 June 2014 for about 30 minutes to give Brand a massage; Goldsmith herself 'saw nothing improper'. She claims that Berki later told the police that Brand had pushed her in the back as he was leaving, and that she was attacked by Goldsmith's dog; after Goldsmith's statement and CCTV footage, the police, she says, concluded there was no case. Then, according to Goldsmith, Berki sent out 'vicious antisemitic and threatening' messages and published 'wild and false accusations', after which she agreed to a proposal from Brand's lawyer to seek a court injunction against harassment. She said that recent media reports about the injunction resulted in 'disgusting hatred and abuse' directed at her online.

What was said at the hearing

Victim impact statements were read out at the sentencing hearing. One of the women said she had been 'upset and traumatised' for years: 'I did not respect myself. I thought I was damaged goods — I was afraid to send signals that could be misinterpreted.' The woman Brand was found guilty of raping said she is forced to 'carry this trauma with me every day'. After the hearing, a van believed to be carrying Brand was seen arriving at HMP Wandsworth prison in London.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images