Russell Brand – You Don’t Need Fame To Be a Rapist, but It Helps

It is not just the entertainment industry that needs to take a hard look at itself. It takes a whole society’s for a rapist to get away with it, whether he is a megastar or the bloke down the road.

Russell Brand arrives at Southwark Crown Court during his trial. He will be sentenced on Monday. Photo credit should read Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing via Getty Images

Jimmy Savile. Jeffrey Epstein. Harvey Weinstein. Mohamed Al-Fayed. Russell Brand.

What do these men have in common? All are sexual predators. And in each case, long before the full extent of their conduct became public, there were warnings. People knew.

Yesterday, Russell Brand was found guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault. The offences took place between 1999 and 2009, a period when Brand rose from budding stand-up comic to Hollywood star. After his trial, police confirmed that they were investigating two further allegations of rape, and expected more women to come forward.

Hiding in Plain Sight