Russell Brand’s barrister, Ian Winter KC, invoked an earlier consensual encounter while asking for a reduced sentence for rape at Southwark Crown Court on November 9, 2026. Brand received 10 years and 6 months in prison that day for rape and 3 sexual assaults, including a 9-year sentence for the rape.
“What the defendant should be sentenced for is really quite a short, momentary total failure to respect her consent” — Ian Winter KC
During mitigation, Winter argued that the encounter’s consensual beginning should affect the sentence. He described Brand as a man who “went too far and overrode consent that had been given,” and said there was “no planning, there was no premeditation.” His argument concerned the punishment for the offence; the jury had already convicted Brand.
Winter also called a separate sexual assault from 2004 a “very, very short incident” and described 1 victim as “not particularly vulnerable.”
The rape conviction concerned a woman who was 21 at the time of the 2009 attack. The court heard that she agreed to vaginal sex with a condom at Brand’s home.
He then removed the condom and penetrated her anally without her consent. She asked him to stop, and he continued.
In sentencing Brand, the judge stressed that agreeing to 1 sexual act leaves a person free to refuse another. Consent can be limited to a particular act, made conditional on condom use, or withdrawn at any point.