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[Content warning: discussion of rape and sexual assault] –Russel Brand, GUILTY

TheCatWoman

Of rape and sexual assault, has been remanded in custody and will be sentenced on Monday, to what the judge called a significant prison sentence. The Met have said they have to further cases against him that are before the CPS.

I really hope this case shines a light on the men who think they're entitled by fame to abuse any woman they choose.I hope the person who's currently asking the courts to stop him being named as a sexual abuser, because he might "try and kill himself" if named, gets told, no and that freedom of the press matters and that the women he's alledged of assaulting can have their day in court after a full and thorough investigation.

This comes on top of TWO cases currently before the courts of men accused of drugging their wives, raping them, photographing and filming them and asking other men to come and do the same.

I think Madam Pelicot has opened the floodgates on the amount of depravity some men are capable of. Apparently its quite a common fantasy among men, to want to have sex with an unconious woman!

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  • I was a young man in the late 90's and early 2000's and was aware of the kind of laddish anything goes attitude when it came to women. It's far from perfect now but when I think back to how it was then, I shudder at how horrible it was. I was never aware of anyone sexually assaulting or raping someone but the way women were talked about among groups of young men was awful. It made me uncomfortable but I am afraid to say I never spoke up about it, and probably said some things that I would now be ashamed of, all in the name of fitting in.

    It's good that people like Brand are now being made to pay for their past actions and I hope it gives confidence to other women with similar stories to those who bravely testified against him, to come forward. I have been listening to The Times' daily podcast on the trial though, and some of the questioning from the defence was astonishingly outdated in tone. Using the length of time between the rape or assault and reporting it, in order to throw doubt on the testimony. As far as I knew, we all now fully understand why that happens: shame, fear, the doubt that you will be believed etc: all spoken about at length and understood, yet still seen as a legitimate line of questioning. The same with questions about why they didn't scream, or fight back, or run away. It blew my mind that his defence thought these sorts of questions were either appropriate or going to aid him in any way.

    Everything he was accused of is sickening but I was particularly relieved that he was convicted of that one count of rape, as it was just an utterly appalling thing that he did to that young lady. He deserves a very long custodial sentence and it looks like he will get one, with more charges to come it would seem. They were right to not bail him as it would have been completely unsurprising if he had absconded.

  • in reply to McFrost
    McFrost said:
    we all now fully understand why that happens: shame, fear, the doubt that you will be believed etc

    Not to mention - as with the Cornell case - shock is often a factor. I mean, you can never expect to be treated in such a way, particularly if it was someone you trusted or even found attractive, so it is only natural that our minds take time to accept the reality that consent was never actually given.

  • in reply to profdanger

    Absolutely. Some of Brand's behaviour after his rape and assaults was said to be an attempt to normalise what had happened. He would leave his phone number or email and he would get back in touch asking to meet again etc. His defence suggested that this was an odd thing for him to do if he had just raped someone but it cast doubt in the minds of the survivors about what had happened.

    I also suspect that he didn't really feel like he was doing much wrong. He was rich and famous and was likely also having a lot of consensual sex (I know that term is problematic but it seems useful here) so probably felt that if a few women weren't consenting, he was perfectly within his rights to carry on regardless.

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  • in reply to profdanger

    Absolutely. Some of Brand's behaviour after his rape and assaults was said to be an attempt to normalise what had happened. He would leave his phone number or email and he would get back in touch asking to meet again etc. His defence suggested that this was an odd thing for him to do if he had just raped someone but it cast doubt in the minds of the survivors about what had happened.

    I also suspect that he didn't really feel like he was doing much wrong. He was rich and famous and was likely also having a lot of consensual sex (I know that term is problematic but it seems useful here) so probably felt that if a few women weren't consenting, he was perfectly within his rights to carry on regardless.

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