Comedian Katherine Ryan has said she feels “grief and relief” after Russell Brand was convicted of rape and sexual assault.
The Canadian stand-up and TV star said there were “a lot of women speaking privately and quietly” following Thursday’s verdict, who feel “a very nuanced mix of emotions”.
Ryan had previously claimed in a 2022 BBC TV documentary interview with Louis Theroux that there was “predator” in the entertainment industry.
Ryan said in 2022 that she could not name the male comic as it would be a “litigious minefield” but mentioned that she had appeared on a TV programme with the man in question and told him he was “predator” to “his face”.
‘Justice done today’
Speaking about the guilty verdict of his trial, on the latest episode of her podcast Telling Everybody Everything, Ryan said: “It really made me feel just quite dysregulated again, caught off-guard, emotional, in awe of the survivors who also had nothing to gain.
“They came forward despite Russell Brand having fame, power, money, and a legion of fans ready to attack them.”
She added: “I will never be someone who like, dances on graves. There has been some justice done today. There’s a level of relief, but there’s grief alongside relief.
“Everything’s nuanced, and it was proved in court that a terrible thing happened, and that means that a terrible thing happened.
“I just think again and again about people who have been hurt, and who have to carry that, who’ve carried that around long enough, and will continue to carry that in some way, regardless of what justice is done.”
PABrand was found guilty on Thursday of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault.
The former entertainer was acquitted of two other rape charges and one allegation of attempted indecent assault.
The 51-year-old will be sentenced on Monday. The judge, Mr Justice Bennathan, told him to expect “a significant custodial term” after the verdicts were delivered.
Ryan continued on the podcast: “This verdict came because women were hurt, and I worry as well about what happens next.
“Because he’s obviously spent a long time cultivating this idea that the establishment have invented these claims against him, and he’s martyred himself to a growing audience who really still think that it is the courageous survivors who are the villains in this story.”
‘Justice is served’ says Bear Grylls
Bear Grylls, the adventurer and host of the Discovery Channel’s show Man Vs Wild, has spoken about when he helped baptise Brand in the River Thames in 2024.
“Brand’s faith seemed genuine to me at the time when I was a guest at his private baptism,” he said on X, adding he had attended a few, including “visiting in prisons with people who have committed terrible crimes”.
He said he attended as part of a calling of his faith “to love and serve anyone”, adding it is “the sick who need healing”.
“Judgement is for the courts and God… I wouldn’t want to ever discourage someone’s coming to faith,” he added. “It is right that justice has now been served.
“I can’t imagine how hard this time has been for the victims, the heroes of the day.”
More allegations
Brand is now also being investigated over further rape allegations made by two women, police have now said.
Details in legal documents from a hearing at London’s Southwark Crown Court before Brand’s criminal trial began suggest that one of the women was 16 years old at the time and featured in a Channel 4 documentary.
Brand was accused by four women of rape, sexual assaults and emotional abuse in a joint Channel 4 Dispatches, Times and Sunday Times investigation in September 2023.
The actor and comedian denied the allegations.
None of the women who featured in the media investigation were the complainants from Brand’s criminal trial.
On Thursday it emerged that Brand was facing further rape allegations made by two women. The Metropolitan police said he had previously been interviewed under caution in relation to them.
During a pre-trial hearing in October Brand tried unsuccessfully to have his criminal case thrown out.
His lawyers argued that the actor and entertainer couldn’t receive a fair trial because of the publicity following the Dispatches programme.
Prosecutors opposed Brand’s application to have his case stopped.
It was during that hearing that the prosecution said one of the complaints made in the documentary was being investigated.
Riel Karmy-Jones KC said: “Of the four women in the Ch4 documentary, two concern events outside the jurisdiction.
“One did not disclose any offence. The other is being investigated.
“There had been some interaction in 2018, she did not report the matter until 2024, after the documentary was aired.”
In documents submitted to the court for the hearing prosecutors also said it was “plainly incorrect” to say there had been a decision not to investigate.
“The outstanding charges against RB in respect of ‘Alice’ from Dispatches demonstrate that there has been no such decision – rather that the police will and have responded appropriately once a formal allegation is made.”
The head of the Metropolitan Police has said he “wouldn’t be surprised” if more people came forward to make allegations about Russell Brand.
Sir Mark Rowley also told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Friday that what he heard reported from Brand’s trial at Southwark Crown Court came very close to “victim blaming”.
