When the sentence came, the man who had once filled theatres from London to Los Angeles with his talk stood silent in the dock of Southwark Crown Court and showed nothing at all. Russell Brand, aged 51, was jailed for ten years and six months, and only as he was led down to the cells did he turn, mouth the words "I love you" to his wife Laura, and disappear from public view. The judge, Joel Bennathan, called him a sexual predator and spoke of his "staggering arrogance". The total was built from four separate convictions involving four women between 2004 and 2009: nine years for the rape of a 21-year-old at his London home, eighteen months for an assault at the Choice FM studios, nine months for grabbing a woman at a birthday party in a bar, and eight months for an assault during a Channel 4 project.

Because sex offenders are excluded from the early release scheme, he could be freed after seven years, two thirds of the term, and would then spend the remainder on licence, perhaps wearing an electronic tag. Perhaps the most striking passage of the day, however, concerned not the acts but the atmosphere around them. The judge observed that Brand's status had shielded him until 2023, when journalists at the Sunday Times, the Times and Channel 4's Dispatches set out a series of allegations and women began to approach the police. He also paid tribute to the courage of those who gave evidence, some of them recalling events that were nearly two decades old.

The case invites an uncomfortable inventory of the industries that once laughed along, from radio studios to television production offices, where charisma could pass for permission.