LONDON (AP) — Russell Brand was convicted Thursday of rape and sexual assault charges involving four women on allegations dating back more than 20 years.
Judge Joel Bennathan said the British actor-comedian faces a “significant” prison term when he is sentenced Monday. Brand had been free, but the judge rejected a bail request because of the possibility he might flee and he was taken into custody.
“I regret the hardship caused to the children, of course,” the judge said. “But the hardship has been caused by serious criminal offending by their father.”
Brand was a ruthless, calculating, manipulative “sexual predator," prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones said at trial.
Brand, 51, denied the charges and testified that he was obsessed with sex as a young man and once led a promiscuous life but had never forced anyone to do something against their will.
He was convicted of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault. He was acquitted of two rape counts and one count of attempted indecent assault.
Brand closed his eyes as the guilty verdict on the rape count was read but showed no emotion otherwise. When bail was denied, he gestured to his lawyers that he was OK and repeatedly said, “I’m good, I’m good, I’m good," before being taken away.
Detective Superintendent Andy Furphy of London’s Metropolitan Police said the conviction was “a testament to the extraordinary courage, resilience and determination of the women who came forward and reported what happened to them.”
“Brand used his influence, status and fame to exploit and sexually offend against women,” he said. “As his profile grew, so too did his sense of entitlement.”
The jury of eight men and four women in Southwark Crown Court deliberated more than eight hours over two days.
Known for risqué stand-up routines and battles with drugs and alcohol, Brand rose to prominence in the early 2000s, hosting television programs and his own BBC radio show. He appeared in Hollywood films including “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “Get Him to the Greek” and was briefly married to pop star Katy Perry.
In recent years he has moved away from mainstream media, relocated to Florida and built a large online following with videos mixing wellness, conspiracy theories and discussions of his religious devotion.
Brand was convicted of sexually assaulting a woman during a birthday party at a London bar in 2004, but cleared of orally raping her in a restroom.
He was also found guilty of kissing and groping another woman at a London radio station in 2004 or 2005 and of anally raping a fan he met backstage at one of his comedy shows in 2009.
The final conviction was for sexually assaulting a different woman who says the comedian demanded a massage and pressed his face into her groin during the recording of an advertisement in 2009.
Brand was acquitted of raping another woman in a hotel room during the Labour Party’s annual conference in the seaside town of Bournemouth in 1999, and of attempting to indecently assault a woman by dragging her into the men’s bathroom at the London office of music channel MTV.
The Associated Press doesn’t name victims of alleged sexual violence, and British law protects their identities from the media for life.
Brand said in the witness box that the criminal case had a devastating impact on his life and family.
“My entire life has been consumed by these events, these allegations, these accusations,” he said.
Brand’s lawyers argued that the alleged victims were undermined by the fact that they only went to police years after the alleged assaults and following the broadcast of a 2023 documentary that contained anonymous allegations against Brand.
Brand testified that friends and colleagues had abandoned him.
His wife, Laura, who accompanied him to court, testified as a character witness in his defense, but no one with relevant evidence was willing to give evidence on his behalf, Brand said.
FILE - Comedian and actor Russell Brand is reflected in a car window as he leaves Southwark Crown Court in London, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, where he is charged with counts of rape and sexual assault against six women.(AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali, File)
Comedian and actor Russell Brand, accompanied by his wife Laura Brand, leaves Southwark Crown Court in London, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026, where he is charged with counts of rape and sexual assault against six women.(AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
Comedian and actor Russell Brand, accompanied by his wife Laura Brand, arrives at Southwark Crown Court in London, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, where he is charged with counts of rape and sexual assault against six women.(AP Photo/Thomas Krych)
MILAN (AP) — Bomb threats targeted more than a dozen flights in Europe on Thursday, leading to a slew of emergency landings and military escorts in some cases, authorities said. No hazardous or suspicious materials have been found in what a British official called “malicious" hoaxes.
Several similar threats targeted planes earlier this week, prompting searches and diversions.
While fake bomb threats are not uncommon, it is unusual to see so many in a single day, causing widespread disruptions. They come at a time of increased geopolitical tensions and warnings from authorities that Russia may be ramping up so-called hybrid threats in Europe. The continent has experienced a slew of other disruptions recently, such as attacks on supermarket refrigeration systems, drone incursions and mysterious triggers to alert apps.
It was not known whether this week's threats were linked — and who was behind them remained murky.
An email containing the threat to Rome-bound planes was sent on behalf of a group that describes itself as anti-feminist, according to a copy provided by an airport official and reviewed by the AP. An official from another European airport said the threat they received also came from a group calling itself anti-feminist, and used some of the same language. It was not clear if they were the same groups. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to share the information.
Britain’s Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander told British broadcasters that flights across Europe have been hit by “malicious hoax threats.”
European Union Transport Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas told reporters in Dublin that it was “too early to draw conclusions on whether the reported incidents are linked.”
“National investigations remain ongoing,” he said, adding that an EU information-sharing mechanism on aviation security had been activated.
A flight from Dublin to Rome was diverted to a military air base in France after receiving a threat, French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu’s office said. The Aer Lingus flight landed safely at the base in Evreux, which was under high alert, and military bomb disposal teams were examining the plane, the office said.
Lecornu ordered warplanes to intercept the plane because the pilot “didn’t cooperate as expected with the authorities,” his office said.
Hours later, the plane was sitting on the tarmac with a Red Cross vehicle nearby while explosive experts with dogs examined it.
An investigation was opened by French aviation security authorities.
Italian air force fighter jets escorted a Finnair flight that departed Helsinki bound for Rome after an email threat was received, the air force said in a statement.
Finnair said that two of its flights, including the one that received the military escort and landed safely in Rome, “faced unfounded hoax bomb scares.” The other flight, operated by Jettime from Helsinki to Vienna, landed safely at its destination, and was expected to return to service after an inspection, Finnair said.
Three Ryanair flights bound for Sofia, Bulgaria, meanwhile, also received military escorts and made emergency landings after bomb threats, officials said. Two of the flights — one from Copenhagen, Denmark, and the other from Madrid — landed safely in Sofia, airport officials told reporters. The third, from London, was diverted and landed safely in Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s second-largest city, Plovdiv Airport CEO Krassimir Peshev said.
Several flights across Europe received bomb threats earlier this week, officials said.
The flights included ones operated by Polish airline LOT, Scandinavian Airlines, Wizz Air and Ryanair. The hoax threats came after a plane headed for Bulgaria was diverted to Hungary after receiving a similar bomb threat while in the air. No one was injured.
A slew of other flights were disrupted Thursday. Among those incidents:
— Czech police said searches of four planes that landed in Prague after being targeted by bomb threats turned up nothing. They have not given details on where the flights originated, and said they took precautions despite not finding the threats credible.
— A LOT Polish Airlines flight from Warsaw to Brussels landed at its destination, where inspections found no hazardous or suspicious items, the airline said.
— A Wizz Air flight from Milan to Bucharest landed safely in Bucharest following a bomb threat, airport spokesman Teo Postelnicu said. Checks turned up no bomb.
— A flight to Warsaw landed in Vienna after an email to Polish authorities containing an abstract threat, said Stefan Loidl, a police spokesperson in Lower Austria province. Nothing was found and the plane continued to Warsaw. He said there was also an abstract threat to Vienna Airport concerning four other flights, which he declined to identify, but operations were not disrupted.
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Charlton reported from Paris and Biller from Rome. Associated Press writers throughout Europe contributed to this report.
Passengers wheel their luggage outside the main entrance to departures at Brussels international airport in Zaventem, Belgium, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)
An Aer Lingus Airbus A320 aircraft is seen at Evreux military air base after a flight from Dublin to Rome was diverted to France amid reports of bomb threats targeting multiple flights across Europe, in Evreux, France, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)
Passengers check their flight at Leonardo da Vinci International Airport in Fiumicino, near Rome, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, after a flight from Dublin to Rome was diverted to France amid reports of bomb threats targeting multiple flights across Europe. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
An Aer Lingus Airbus A320 aircraft is seen at Evreux military air base after a flight from Dublin to Rome was diverted to France amid reports of bomb threats targeting multiple flights across Europe, in Evreux, France, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)
An Aer Lingus Airbus A320 aircraft is seen at Evreux military air base after a flight from Dublin to Rome was diverted to France amid reports of bomb threats targeting multiple flights across Europe, in Evreux, France, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)
