Sandra Stiskalo: Rape convict Russell Brand used his status to recruit women

It was said that everyone knew someone who had had sex with comedian Russell Brand.

This reputation, or what to call it, that was rampant in London's media circles in the early 2000s did not get Brand. On the contrary.

That he was constantly, day and night, looking for sex was perhaps the most important part of his noisy and messy persona. When he was interviewed in 2015, after admiring her curved eyelashes, he put his legs over DN's reporter Matilda Voss Gustavsson.

During the three weeks that the trial against him has been going on, another Brand has appeared. Robotic and without revealing a face behind his sunglasses, he has arrived and left the court in south London in a Mercedes.

On Thursday, the jury made its decision. Despite his denial, Russell Brand was convicted of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault.

Standing behind the dock, he asked to travel home over the weekend "to be able to explain to his children".

However, Judge Joel Bennathan ordered that he be remanded in custody until Monday, when the sentence will be announced. It will likely be several years in prison.

The rape for which he is convicted took place at Russell Brand's house in Hampstead in 2009. The victim, who was a fan, met the comedian after a stand-up show in London. He invited her to his lodge and a few days later to his home. There, the young woman consented to vaginal sex. Brand then anally raped her, called her "disgusting" and told her to "clean up" the mess she had made.

As a self-proclaimed libertine, the boundless sex anecdotes were a permanent number in his comic repertoire.

This was before pk year 2014 and before metoo. The aesthetics of pristineness dominated. Anyone who took issue with Brand's abuse jokes was dismissed as humorless, hysterical, perhaps downright frigid.

You can joke about everything. But in Brand's case, it has now emerged that the jokes weren't just jokes, they rested on actual abuse.

Similar to the Swedish so-called cultural profile, he used his status and his platform to recruit victims. Of course, it did not go unnoticed. The British newspaper The Independent's columnist Victoria Richards states that she was already warned about Russell Brand by women in the industry as a twenty-year-old.

But after all, most people turned their eyes away or allowed themselves to be dazzled. The unrestrainedness was portrayed as genius and the sexual complacency was mistaken for charisma.

The London police state that an investigation into the rape is still ongoing. It has emerged that one of the plaintiffs was 16 years old when the incident occurred.

That additional women will come forward with accusations can in no way be ruled out.

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