Judge hails victims' bravery as sex predator Russell Brand is caged for 10 years

Shamed Russell Brand was today sentenced to a total of 10 years and six months in jail on Monday for raping one woman and sexually assaulting three others. The disgraced entertainer, 51, was told he will be on the sex offenders register for life and must serve at least seven years of his sentence behind bars before being considered for release on license. Judge Mr Justice Joel Bennathan sentenced Brand for the rape of a fan and sex assaults on three women, including a woman in a Soho bar, as well as a radio worker and a Channel 4 staffer, who were both abused by him while at work. He today blasted the serial sex offender's "staggering arrogance" and described him as a "sexual predator" and a liar who he said had finally been unmasked after his victims contacted police after watching a Channel 4 Dispatches programme and reading newspaper coverage about him. Follow our live coverage of Russell Brand's sentencing here Judge calls Russell Brand a 'sexual predator' Mr Justice Bennathan told Brand: "About 20 years ago, Russell Brand, you were becoming famous. You were clever and, in many people’s eyes, funny and charismatic. You had also become a sexual predator." A jury at Southwark crown court last week unanimously found Brand guilty of attacking his four victims between 2004 and 2009, at the height of his fame. They included a 21-year-old fan he anally raped after meeting after a comedy gig at the Hammersmith Apollo in London. The born-again Christian was found guilty of sexually assaulting an MTV worker at a party in a Soho bar in 2004, but cleared of orally raping her in a toilet afterwards. He was also convicted of sexually assaulting a Channel 4 worker in 2009 after she was forced to give him a massage by two of his colleagues. And a jury found he sexually assaulting a woman at the Choice FM radio studio in 2004 or 2005. The victim told the court he violently grabbed her buttocks and breasts, while kissing her as his entourage looked on and one laughed. Confronting Brand about his attack on the radio worker, the judge today told him: "No doubt your companions thought it was outrageous laddish behaviour that only you could get away with. It was outrageous and possibly laddish, but also a criminal sexual offence... and as it turns out you haven’t got away with it." 'I pause to pay tribute to the determination and bravery of all the women' Mr Justice Bennathan also admonished Brand for the other attacks, including the anal rape of a fan after he met her after one of his gigs at the Hammersmith Apollo. He said: "She was a huge fan of yours, which you were happy to exploit. "Although the rape was 17 years ago, she still finds it affects her ability to form new friendships and to know when she can trust people. I also know she developed an alcohol problem, partly as a result of your attack on her." During the trial, acting on Brand's instructions, barrister Ian Winter KC had attempted to claim all of the accusations against his client were either consensual or didn't happen. He also accused the victims of fabricating their accounts and not complaining at the time, leading to calls for rape myths about victims reactions to be challenged in court. The judge told Brand: "Finally before passing sentence, I pause to pay tribute to the determination and bravery of all the women whose evidence I have been recounting. I do not increase your punishment because of it, but all those women had to face being confronted and being told they had lied, or twisted the truth and, or, they had agreed to your sexual demands. That was all done because of you, on your instructions." The judge added: "Whatever women wear, wherever they go, indeed whatever they drink, they retain the right to say no and to demand justice from the criminal courts when sexual predators like you, Russell Brand, act without their consent." Brand's wife stands by disgraced comedian Mr Winter KC told the court his client's wife Laura Gallacher, who repeatedly appeared tearful during today's hearing, is standing by him. The lawyer said he had spoken to her on Monday morning and added that words cannot describe "the total devastation she is experiencing". Mr Winter said the case "is a complete disaster for Mr Brand" and "a catastrophic devastation for his family and those three young children", who are aged between three and ten. He added: "Mr and Mrs Brand are wrestling with how to explain to a child who has just turned ten what has happened here". Brand was seen mouthing to his wife, who was sitting behind him in the public gallery, telling her: "It'll be okay, I don't know how, but it will". He was also seen praying and making a cross sign with his hand inside the dock. Moving and at times harrowing victim impact statements were read in court, including by one of the victims who appeared in court in person from behind a screen to read her statement. Each woman had earlier told the court how Brand forced them into sexual activity, sometimes within seconds of meeting them, while exploiting his fame to feed his sexual appetite. One of the victims, who worked for Channel 4 at the time, told how she reported Brand's attack on her to bosses, but claimed it was brushed under the carpet. Former Channel 4 news boss calls for investigations Former head of Channel 4 news Dorothy Byrne spoke out after today's sentencing hearing calling for every company Brand had ever worked at to launch an investigation. She said she hoped this would be "a watershed moment" and told how she fears “there could be many, many victims, possibly even hundreds of women who have been harassed over decades or assaulted by Russell Brand. This is a major case.” The ex-TV boss also said the “wider industry needs to ask themselves questions”. She said: “It is very difficult for women to step forward and I really admire the women who have done so. We have got to find ways as an industry of encouraging women to step forward like this and telling them, assuring the, you will be supported by your employer if you do so.” She added: “There are quite a number of men, and they know who they are and so do quite a few of us, who should be shaking in their boots today and I hope that their victims feel empowered to come forward." After Brand was found guilty on Thursday it emerged prosecutors are now considering charging him with raping two more victims, including a girl who was aged just 16 at the time. She has told police she met Brand in 2006 when his profile was sky-rocketing as host of Channel 4’s Big Brother’s Big Mouth. 'He was ruthless, calculated and manipulative' During a relationship lasting about three months, she says he referred to her as “the child” and alleged he was controlling and sexually abusive. She has said Brand, then aged 30, sent a car to take her out of school lessons and alleges he once forced himself on her, making her choke. She said she tried to push him off, but he stopped only after she hit him in the stomach. Brand had faced a total of seven charges during an almost month-long trial, including three of rape, three of sexual assault and one of attempted indecent assault. He was cleared of raping a woman in a hotel in Bournemouth in 1999 during the Labour Party conference, where he had been performing at a cabaret show. He was also found not guilty of an attempted indecent assault offence when he was accused of grabbing a woman’s arm and pulling her towards a toilet in 2001 in London. Brand, who told his trial that he achieved “staggering fame” when he married American pop star Katy Perry in 2010, had claimed to be the victim of a media conspiracy to paint him as a sexual predator and insisted in court that consent to him was “more important than sex itself ”. He was also confronted with his own words from his 2007 book, in which he said sex was a birth-right, and friends who had revealed his relentless pursuit of sleeping more than 5,000 women. Opening the trial Riel Karmy-Jones, KC, prosecuting, had told the court: “He could be nice when he wanted to be – funny, undoubtedly, charming, likeable even, when he wanted something in return. Then demanding, entitled, a flirt with a huge sexual appetite – childlike in his expectation that his every desire should be met. He was ruthless, calculated and manipulative and, the prosecution say, a sexual predator.”