The Russell Brand verdict is a landmark victory for the understanding of consent | Gaby Hinsliff

The conviction of the comedian for rape and sexual assault upholds the vital principle that women can say no, even after they’ve said yes

With all the sanctimony a born-again Christian rapist can muster, Russell Brand paused on his way into court last week to address reporters. Britain was, he told them piously, “blessed” to have a legal system capable of accommodating truth and justice. Well, amen to that: the former comedian learned today that he will now serve a substantial jail sentence, after being convicted of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault, in what looks like a genuinely landmark victory for the understanding of consent.

Back in the days when comedy was the new rock’n’roll, and he would casually cherrypick girls from the crowd at his gigs, Brand could surely have had all the willing sex he wanted. Yet he seemingly got his kicks from the unwilling, who were forced over boundaries they did not want to cross. “You’re dirty and I wanna push you further,” he texted one victim, months after raping her anally and callously saving her number in his phone under T for “Tart”. The woman – who was in her early 20s when she first gave him oral sex backstage after a gig, and had gone a few days later to his house for what began as consensual sex but soon became something very different – responded angrily via text that he’d treated her “like an animal”.

Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist

Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 802 9999 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Continue reading…