London (AFP) - British comedian Russell Brand was on Thursday found guilty by a London jury of one rape and three sexual assaults, involving a total of four women.

Brand, who closed his eyes but showed no emotion as the jury delivered the verdicts, was cleared of two rapes and one count of attempted indecent assault against two other women.

Judge Joel Bennathan warned the 51-year-old actor turned conservative religious online guru that he faced a “significant custodial term”.

Brand’s wife Laura, who has accompanied him most days since the start of the trial on October 12, watched from the public gallery as the jury at London’s Southwark Crown Court delivered their four unanimous guilty verdicts.

He was remanded in custody and will be sentenced on Monday. The maximum sentence in the UK for rape is life imprisonment.

Brand, who was briefly married to US popstar Katy Perry, also faces a further accusation of raping two more women, including a 16-year-old schoolgirl, and could face further criminal charges.

The allegations, which are being investigated by the Metropolitan Police and could not be reported earlier, were revealed at previous hearings of his four-week trial.

A Met spokesperson said in a statement sent to AFP that Brand had “been interviewed under caution in connection with the allegations” but declined to confirm the women’s ages.

After the verdicts, the Met paid tribute to the “extraordinary courage, resilience and determination of the women who came forward”.

“Brand used his influence, status and fame to exploit and sexually offend against women,” the Met’s Detective Superintendent Andy Furphy said in a statement.

“As his profile grew, so too did his sense of entitlement. I hope this conviction sends a clear message that no one is above the law, no matter how famous or powerful they may be,” Furphy added.

Ahead of the trial, Brand’s defence team attempted to get the case dismissed on the grounds that a 2023 documentary and newspaper article making separate, anonymised allegations about Brand meant he had been convicted “in the court of the media of being a rapist”.

But the judge ruled it was sufficient to eliminate jurors who remembered seeing this coverage, which prompted police to investigate Brand.

Police released videos of interviews with Brand during the investigation where he read out prepared statements slamming the “defamatory and fictitious documentary” which he said resulted in further encounters being “invented or reimagined”.

- ‘Insatiable’ -

Senior prosecutor David Roberts said outside the court Thursday that Brand was “predatory and used his celebrity status to commit sexual crimes”.

“He was a manipulator with an insatiable desire to get what he wanted regardless of whether consent was given or not,” Roberts added.

Brand was convicted of four sexual offences – one rape and three sexual assaults – involving four women between 2005 and 2009 in different locations, including a radio station, a recording studio and Brand’s home address.

He had pleaded not guilty to all the charges saying that although he used to be very promiscuous he had always had consensual sex.

Following the guilty verdicts, Brand’s lawyer Ian Winter urged the judge to renew his bail over the weekend as “an act of humanity”.

Winter said he was asking for bail so Brand could “put his affairs in order and in particular to say goodbye to his three young children”.

Judge Bennathan said he regretted the “hardship caused to the children”.

But he said Brand had “considerable resources” and that whatever his good intentions were there were substantial grounds to “fear he might in the end not feel able to come along and face his sentence”.

From the dock, Brand signalled to his defence team that he was okay, adding: “I’m good, I’m good, I’m good” before being led out of the dock.

Brand’s wife Laura later left the court building wearing dark glasses and was hurried into a car by a bodyguard.