Russell Brand

Agree.

I think with cases like this, many laypeople start to give opinions based on very little fact or experience.

Don’t get me wrong, I am a layperson. But at least I am not pretending to know anything!

I might look in to the minutiae at some point but for now it’s enough to know that he must have been guilty in order to get the guilty verdicts he got.

I think anyone who saw how Brand has acted through the years could be 95% certain we was a sexual predator without any evidence whatsoever. I’d love to hear from any women that found him remotely entertaining.. I mean he always was 100% sleazeball. Just a truly disgusting human being. How did so many women who went to his shows and bought his book block these obvious facts out of their mind?

Utterly disgusted at some comments, adamant on his innocence. A lot of them coming from women, as well. Not on MN, I might add. We really are going backwards in thinking. However, it's been refreshing to hear police and CPS statements encouraging women of sexual assault to always come forward.

It's quite incredible how many people, particularly on social media, are wittering on about no evidence without actually paying attention to the case.

Like, do some research so you can either back up your assertions, or realise that's it's completely untrue and not post it at all.

I’ve found their explanations about how it got to trial and the evidence they had really interesting.
It’s not hard to do a bit of research and to see that it was complex, thorough investigation.
Anyone who is adamant that it was simply a case of ‘he said, she said’ or proclaims he’s innocent just comes across as not very intelligent.

If it happened and then the man kept bragging about it publicly, I would report it q0 years later. Yes.

I fully support rapists going to jail. So f**k Brand. Rapists are rarely convicted so clearly what was presented to the jury was enough to convince them of his guilt.

Yes, absolutely.

The taxi driver was convicted of multiple rapes.

What if, what if, what if.......

Unpopular opinion but I think it’s been a witch hunt.

Yeah, care to elaborate?

Why? In what way?
Do you think he’s innocent?

The witch hunt argument has been fabricated to compare justice for Brand to the Grooming gangs. On this occasion, I'm not even thinking about the latter. Brand is not above the law and his predatory antics have finally caught up with him. There will be quite a few male celebs bricking it at present. Fortunately, the law is getting hotter on bringing these 'men' to justice.

There is a reason that yours is an unpopular opinion.

I think there is a level of frustration from many that he was very obviously a sex predator and many people who worked in the industry knew it and yet he continued to get away with it.

I know some who worked very closely with another famous name that gets mentioned regularly on here and she told me about his behaviour years ago. A lot of money is made out of these people and that is why they get away with it for years.

I watched a documentary about Jimmy Savile and quite a few people felt that he was also subject to a witch hunt. After more and more information came out, that view seemed to fade.

Do you still think so now that Jemima Khan has spoken about her experience?

You’re either a pick me girl or a man. Either way you’re defending a convicted rapist. How low your bar is. You must have permanently broken toes.

Hiv not aids.

I liked him on big brothers big mouth, I also found his stand up comedy funny. I read his books, and he came across to me as someone very troubled and, actually, very vulnerable.
I never found him physically attractive, and I couldn't fathom why so many women did.

I've never judged anyone, male or female, on being promiscuous. And whenever I read/heard him talk about that, he was making fun of himself. He had a lot of savvy, high profile friends in the industry. Lots of people were fooled by him.

That’s what I was thinking. You don’t seem to know much about it at all. Even the basics. But you are starting a post saying‘I’m not saying he’s innocent’.

This questioning as to whether he is guilty or not is ridiculous. I’m not sure whether people realise how hard it is to get rape cases into court. Most aren’t prosecuted.
FFS what does it take for women to be believed when doubt is being thrown even when there is a conviction? No wonder most women don’t report

He isn’t the first and he won’t be the last.
It’s all so depressing and sad.
Feel for his victims , they are the ones with the life sentence :(

Jeez, this is AIBU.
At least try and have an AIBU

It seems you occasionally get these hugely charismatic yet morally flawed individuals who generate huge revenue for their employers (who then become their enablers). They then became too valuable to be held accountable and therefore become almost untouchable. Hopefully the tide has turned.

The argument that there was no physical evidence seems to be being put about by American social media commentators. Apparently he became very big in the US after his star faded here.

I don’t know if perhaps there is a different standard of evidence in the US and rape cases require physical evidence, but of course in the UK, physical evidence (eg DNA samples) are not required to secure a conviction, and rightly so.

The obsession with the lack of DNA samples is particularly perplexing - he didn’t deny that sec took place so DNA samples would
prove nothing.