Crime

A VICTIM of rapist Russell Brand told a court she has lived with the never-ending trauma of the attack for the past 17 years.

The disgraced star’s youngest target met him when he invited her backstage at one of his stand-up comedy gigs.

He hand-picked her from a line-up of female fans at the Hammersmith Apollo in 2009.

He invited the woman, who was in her early 20s at the time, to his £2.3million home in Hampstead, North London, the following week.

He then anally raped her.

In a later text exchange she rejected his further advances, telling him: “You’ve pushed me far enough. You treated me like an animal.”

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In an emotional victim personal statement — one of four presented to Southwark crown court yesterday — the woman told how her life has been plagued by what she called the “lasting effects of trauma” from the attack.

She said: “The effects have been significant and continue to affect me today. Even now, I feel that I am living with the trauma of what happened. It is something I carry with me every day and it often feels never-ending.”

In her statement, read out by prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones KC, she told the court that she felt humiliated and overwhelmed and moved back in with her parents because she did not feel safe alone.

She described becoming hyper-vigilant, adding: “I often felt on edge and avoided certain situations.”

She added that she was left terrified that she had contracted a sexually transmitted disease from the comedian and TV presenter — and that also had a profound effect on her mental health.

In her statement, she said the thought of seeing Brand again caused her “anxiety and fear” and destroyed her career ambitions.

She told the court: “The defendant’s public profile had a significant impact on me.­

“Because of who he was and the influence he held, I did not feel confident speaking openly about what had happened.

“I did not know who I could trust or confide in.

“I felt that if I reported him, I would not be believed. His fame, wealth and influence created a power imbalance which made me feel powerless.

“I did not have the confidence to challenge someone who appeared so powerful, rich and influential.

“His public profile meant that he remained present in my life even when I wanted to move on.

“I would regularly encounter references to him in the media, which made it difficult to escape reminders of what had happened.”

The woman eventually came forward to police in 2025 after seeing he had been charged with attacking other women.

She told the court that Brand’s celebrity was a significant factor in her not contacting police about the rape for 16 years.

She added: “When I eventually reported what had happened, it was not simply because of the media documentary.

“By that stage I had become aware of the police investigation and felt that I was finally in a stronger position mentally to disclose my experience.

“Reporting what happened was something I had hoped I would eventually be able to do but it took a long time to reach that point. The investigation and criminal justice process have been extremely difficult.

“Providing personal records and access to my mobile phone felt highly intrusive and, at times, I felt as though I was the person being scrutinised and interrogated.

“Every update regarding the case brought back memories of the incident and felt like reopening old wounds.

“Rather than allowing me to move forward, updates often pulled me back into a painful period of my life.

“I have also been very anxious about attending court and being cross-examined. The thought of personal details being discussed publicly has caused me significant distress.”

The complainant also described the way Brand’s defence team labelled her an “obsessive fan” as deeply hurtful.

She responded: “That portrayal does not reflect who I am.

“I had my own ambitions, goals and aspirations.”

And she went on: “The media coverage surrounding the case has added another layer of difficulty.

“I was unprepared for the level of publicity.

“It has been extremely distressing to relive what happened and then see it discussed so widely across television, newspapers and online platforms.

“I have been worried throughout that my identity, or the identities of my family members, could become known.

“The intensity of media interest has created anxieties that are separate from the rape and has made it much harder to put the experience behind me.”

She went on: “My confidence and self-esteem have been badly affected. I regularly feel on edge and question my own judgment.

“I doubt my ability to make good decisions and no longer trust my instincts in the way I once did.

“I have lost trust in other people, particularly those I do not know well, and I often worry that I will not be listened to or believed.

“I also lost respect for myself following the incident and felt as though I had lost control over my own life. Looking back, I feel that I abandoned myself and my own needs.”

Concluding her victim personal statement, she told the court how what she called the “lasting and far-reaching” consequences of the attack had affected “almost every aspect of my life”.

She said: “Even now, I continue to experience anxiety, difficulties with trust, reduced confidence and the lasting effects of trauma.

“What happened is not something that I have simply been able to move on from.

“It remains a significant part of my life and continues to influence how I view myself, my relationships and my future.”

Brand — who clutched prayer beads in his hand — looked on emotionless as the prosecutor delivered the statement.

A court in Honduras has delayed a verdict in a sex-trafficking case linked to the 2022 disappearance of Angie Pena, a case that has raised concerns about impunity in transnational crimes.

On Monday, Honduras’s judiciary cited the need to review evidence and wait for the return of a court interpreter, who was out of the country. The decision has been delayed until November 20.

The verdict was expected that same day. Critics framed the unexpected delay as yet another hurdle in a case that has drawn comparisons to the crimes of the late Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender in the US accused of running a sex-trafficking ring.

Four men, including two US citizens, are on trial for crimes related to Pena’s disappearance four years ago.

Harold Green and William James Murdock, both from the US, face human-trafficking charges. Another US citizen, Gary Lee Johnston, and Honduran citizen Gustavo Trejo are accused of criminal association.

Honduran authorities have also sought an Interpol notice for another suspect, US citizen Antony Frank Grayson.

The Honduran public prosecutor’s office said the suspects are part of a network involved in crimes including drug trafficking and sex trafficking involving minors.

It alleges police and at least one judge helped facilitate the criminal network, without naming the officials.

Defence lawyers, however, have denied the men’s involvement and requested an acquittal.

Pena went missing on January 1, 2022, after setting out on a jet ski from West Bay on the Honduran island of Roatan, while vacationing with her family.

Authorities initially focused on a rescue mission at sea, treating her disappearance as a possible accident.

But the case expanded into a trafficking investigation after Pena’s jet ski was found in Belize, some 170km (90 nautical miles) away.

In August 2022, authorities investigating the disappearance found a minor in the Roatan house occupied by Johnston, who was later sentenced to 32 years for commercial sex trafficking and child pornography in a separate case.

An analysis by Honduran media found that the country was mentioned more than 100 times in the Epstein files, including multiple references to Roatan, from where Pena disappeared.

“There are many more women and girls who have been victims of trafficking networks, and those cases are silenced, they go unpunished,” said Kenia Paz, a lawyer for the Legal Team for Human Rights, which represents Pena’s family.

Lawyers representing the family have questioned the lack of transparency in the investigation and in the trial, which was not open to the press or the general public.

Postponing the verdict “fuels the perception of impunity, increases public distrust in state security institutions, and prolongs the suffering and vulnerability of affected families”, said former Honduran Vice Minister of Security Julissa Villanueva in a post on X.

Dereck McNeil, a key protected witness, was killed in August, spurring further concerns about the case.

In videos made public after his death, McNeil alleged corruption within a special unit of the public prosecutor’s office known as the ATIC.

He accused the unit of leaking information about the case and being linked to drug-trafficking networks.

The ATIC director has denied any corruption and said that the unit has not been involved in investigating Pena’s disappearance.

Villanueva, the former vice minister, told The Associated Press that she believes prosecutors mishandled the case from the start, pushing a “tunnel vision” explanation of what happened.

“There are connections with other larger networks, and only by making them public will this family be able to get justice,” said Villanueva.

“It’s not just Angie. It’s all those women around Angie. There are many.”

During private meetings with survivors, Pope Leo XIV pledged to reinforce safeguards and listen to victims.

Pope Leo XIV has met with five survivors of clerical sexual abuse on the second day of his historic visit to Argentina.

The private meetings in Buenos Aires on Monday were the first of several talks the pope is planning to hold with abuse survivors during his 12-day tour of Latin America, according to the Vatican.

“The Pope spoke individually with each of them, listened to their words and to the painful stories of their experiences, as well as to their proposals for strengthening paths towards healing within the Church,” the Vatican said in a statement.

The closed-door meetings followed a historic open-air mass that drew an estimated 2.5 million people to Avenida del Libertador, a major boulevard in the capital, at the Monumento de los Espanoles. It was the country’s first papal liturgy in nearly 40 years.

The meetings with survivors respond to the pope’s desire to “express his closeness to those who have suffered”, build paths to healing and ensure the church is a safe and “spiritually healthy” place, the Holy See Press Office said in October.

Leo, the first pope born in the United States, has consistently met with survivors during foreign visits as part of a wider outreach aiming to repair global relations and restore the Catholic Church’s credibility. Lawsuits, widespread sexual abuse and cover-ups have sullied its reputation over the last three decades.

While clergy abuse cases are difficult to track globally, a 2021 independent inquiry found there were an estimated 216,000 victims of the French Catholic Church’s clergy alone between 1950 and 2020. Earlier research found more than 10,600 people were abused by Catholic priests in the US between 1950 and 2002, while Australia counted 6,875 victims of Catholic clergy, religious and lay church workers between 1980 and 2015, according to a 2019 German study.

During the meeting, which lasted more than an hour, Leo, 71, listened to victims’ testimonies and reiterated his pledge to strengthen safeguarding in the Catholic Church. Before being named pope, Leo served as president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

Argentina is the second stop on Leo’s three-country tour, which began in Uruguay and will wrap up in Peru.

His visit was the first by a pontiff since Pope John Paul II’s trip in 1987.

Brand says goodbye to wife Laura Gallacher

A court sketch had captured the emotional moment Russell Brand said goodbye to his wife, Laura Gallacher, as he was led away to begin his prison sentence.

Laura, 39, appeared devastated in the public gallery as Brand was sentenced. As he was led from the dock, he mouthed the words: “I love you” and “we’ll be OK” to his wife.

She was heard saying “Oh God” as her husband was brought into court. Before the hearing began, Brand had reassured her: “It’ll be OK. I don’t know how, but it will.”

A second sketch showed a distraught-looking Laura leaning against the dock as Brand stood to hear his sentence.

The ‘must-watch’ spy thriller keeps viewers hooked from start to finish

Six new episodes of the ‘unbelievably entertaining’ show are now on Netflix.

Black Doves season two brings viewers back into a world of espionage and dangerous secrets. At the centre of the thriller is Helen, who is married to the UK’s Defence Secretary but secretly works for a spy organisation.

When the drama debuted in 2024, Helen’s secret life with the Black Doves came under threat when her lover was killed by London’s criminal underworld. With her cover at risk, the organisation sent her old friend Sam to protect her.

With Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw back as Helen and Sam, the second series raises the stakes for Helen’s double life. Her husband Wallace, played by Andrew Buchan, becomes Prime Minister, leaving her trying to maintain her cover as his political career reaches new heights.

The new series launched with six fresh episodes last week and has rapidly ascended the rankings on Netflix. It currently occupies the Number One spot on the popular TV shows chart, and has secured a near-flawless 94% Rotten Tomatoes score.

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Fans have been left thoroughly impressed by the latest series, with one IMDb user raving: “Fast-paced thriller. Excellent cast, well acted. The acting is very good, as is the directing. Great locations and fine camera work. Couldn’t ask for better. If you are looking for an evening binge, this is it! Enough twists and turns to keep you guessing. I thought the first series was good, but the second is so much better. The characters (mostly) felt very realistic,” reports the Express.

Someone else praised: “Love it, love it, love it. Had to binge-watch series two. So glad Ambika Mod got a well-deserved break after One Day. Her character was fun but dangerous. Hope she continues to be popular. Everything unfolds in this series and keeps you guessing until the very last episode.”

A third supporter shared: “Okay. So originally, I gave this show an 8, thinking it was very good. I’ve now watched season 2 and find myself absolutely loving it. It’s crazy, completely absurd, and unbelievably entertaining. The acting is top-notch. This series is up there with Slow Horses, representing the best of what TV has to offer those of us who love a good shootout and a little comedy. Supporting characters Williams and Eleanor – completely ridiculous – amazingly comedic.”

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While another impressed viewer said: “10/10. Thrilling, Chilling, Brilliant. This is genuinely one of the best TV shows I’ve ever watched, and I really don’t say that lightly. Incredible performances all-round, fantastic storylines; simply must-watch TV. Killing Eve on steroids, except darker and with the suspense and shock factor turned up to 11. BRILLIANT BRILLIANT BRILLIANT.”

Devotees are already clamouring to know whether the show will return for a third series, yet Netflix has so far remained tight-lipped about the thriller’s future.

Black Doves is available to stream now on Netflix.

Leslie Preer’s murder went unsolved for 21 years. Her husband was the longtime suspect, but the case went cold. Then, new DNA technology pointed detectives to someone else entirely – a suspect thousands of miles away. Identifying him was one thing. Catching him meant setting a trap.

The illustrations in this video have been created by artists aided by AI-powered software.

In this episode: 

• Dan Morse (@DanMorseWP), Reporter, The Washington Post
• John McCarthy, State’s attorney for Montgomery County

Episode credits:

True Crime Reports is an Al Jazeera Originals Production. Our host is Halla Mohieddeen. This episode was written by Ryan Gaffney. The Head of Podcasts is Jo de Frias. Our executive producer is Fahrinisa Campana. Our senior producers are Leo Danczak and Marthe van der Wolf. Catherine Nouhan is our producer. Our production coordinator is Ashley McCarry. Our senior script editor is Danylo Hawaleshka. Fact-checking by Catherine Nouhan, Zaina Badr and Chiara Brambilla. The head of creative & design is Mohamad Darwiche. Our post-production supervisor is Nacho Cobella. Our video editor is Isaac Bencid. Osama Alsaadi and Hamdi Samali are our AI animators. Bishoy Milad is our graphic artist. Alan Leer is the supervising sound editor. The sound designer is Lizzy Andrews and the music composer is Tom Biddle. Adam Abou-Gad is our engagement producer.

Connect with us:

@AJEPodcasts on X, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube

RAPIST Russell Brand was banned from BBC’s Los Angeles office in 2019 after allegedly flashing a woman in the toilets and exposing himself to her a decade earlier.

The disgraced comedian, 51, allegedly followed his victim – known by the pseudonym of “Olivia” – into the loos and exposed his penis in June 2008, minutes before recording Radio 2’s The Russell Brand Show.

At the time, his co-host Matt Morgan said on air that Brand had “showed his willy to a lady” 25 minutes earlier, but the incident was not investigated by the Beeb.

Olivia, who was not employed by the BBC but worked for another company in the same building, said she felt she couldn’t report the incident in 2008 because she feared repercussions.

She told the The Sunday Times: “I’d like to think my employer would have backed me, but I was worried that if I had gone up against him [Brand] and lost, I would have been responsible for any costs.

“It was a very different time and culture. There were also elements of embarrassment that this creep did this to me. It was shame.”

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However, the incident became a popular joke among BBC’s LA staff, with the corporation admitting last year that it was “often joked about”.

The revelations come as The Sun revealed that Brand secretly moved nearly £9million from one of his firms, which could stop money going to his victims.

Brand began diluting his vast wealth prior to standing trial for rape, despite always protesting his innocence, a Sun probe has revealed.

He shifted £8.7million out of his TV and stand-up company last year.

Legal experts expect the former comedian and actor will be subject to significant financial claims from victims on both sides of the Atlantic after he was last week found guilty of one rape and three sexual assaults.

He also resigned as a director of one firm in 2023, just weeks after he was publicly accused of being a sexual predator.

It comes as the religious influencer faces a significant jail term when he is sentenced today, November 9, at London’s Southwark crown court.

It has also emerged that Brand claimed he groped other students as part of a sick “genital grabbing” game while he was at school.

In his first memoir My Booky Wook, Brand, now 51, says he played a grubby game called “genital grabbing”, where he would grope other students over their clothes.

He later wrote of his classmates: “No one was safe from me… every female was a potential target.”

When he was in his 20s, this morphed into what was called the “knobstacle course” – his challenge of trying to charm women into going to bed with him.

It  has been claimed Brand molested a female friend at a posh hotel — before paying for her to go through rehab.

The woman says he followed her to the toilets before pushing her into the disabled cubicle and sexually assaulting her.

The newly resurfaced material comes after the fiend was found guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault following a trial at Southwark Crown Court earlier this week.

He was acquitted of three charges.

After he was convicted, it emerged that he is being investigated over two new rape claims.

United States-based chipmaker Nvidia is investigating its chief executive officer, billionaire Jensen Huang, after he confirmed he had an intimate relationship with a woman accused of working for Chinese intelligence.

In an announcement on Sunday, Nvidia said the probe would be conducted by a “committee of independent directors” with outside counsel.

“While the board has no reason to believe that either national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised, the board’s inquiry will examine all available information,” Nvidia’s board of directors said.

It said the board continued to have “confidence in Jensen and his leadership team”. Huang will continue to lead Nvidia during the probe.

The investigation follows a report in The New York Times last month that Jensen may have been the target of a Chinese espionage plot.

China and the US have been in competition to dominate key tech sectors like artificial intelligence (AI).

Amid the AI boom, Nvidia has seen demand for its chips and programming interfaces explode, resulting in the company being valued in the trillions of dollars.

For years, the US has sought to restrict the export of advanced chips to China, fearing the Asian superpower could gain an edge over its technology and military sectors.

But on October 29, The New York Times said it had obtained exclusive information that a Chinese woman named Alice Huang, or Huang Le, sought to cultivate close ties with Jensen Huang in an effort to glean information about Nvidia’s technology.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC, has denied any allegations of spying in the case.

The New York Times also reported that Alice Huang’s employer, Megaspeed, had become one of Nvidia’s largest buyers, purchasing some $4.8bn in equipment from the US firm.

Jensen Huang’s ties to Alice Huang, who is of no relation, spurred fierce bipartisan backlash in the US Congress in the aftermath of the report.

“For months, bipartisan members of Congress have raised concerns about NVIDIA’s advanced AI chips going to China,” Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote in a statement.

“NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang and NVIDIA’s board owe Congress answers. And we need to pass bipartisan legislation we have ready to stop advanced American technology from going to China.”

Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives also called on Huang to appear and testify before Congress about the affair on November 18.

“It is vital that Congress determines the extent to which US national security has been placed at risk,” Republicans John Moolenaar, Brian Mast and Rick Crawford said in a statement.

In an email to Nvidia staff on Sunday, Huang had admitted to having an extramarital relationship.

“I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse ‌for what I did,” Huang said.

Nvidia has grown rapidly in recent years with the rise of AI, producing chips for large language models developed by companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta and Google.

Huang has also been closely working with US President Donald Trump since the Republican leader returned to office in 2025.

In August of that year, the Trump administration announced it would take a 15 percent cut of certain Nvidia chip sales to China.

Trump reportedly bought as much as $1.6m in Nvidia stock and sold about $1m in August, ahead of November’s midterm elections.

After the midterm races last Tuesday, stocks for AI-related companies, including Nvidia, tumbled in reaction to widespread Republican losses.

Trump has pushed back against calls to regulate AI companies, but many Democrats during the midterms campaigned on placing restrictions on the companies, including on the construction of data centres.

Nvidia lost $450bn in market value in a single trading day last week, but it rebounded on Friday, regaining 4 percent of its losses.

RUSSELL Brand’s family are said to be deeply concerned for his wife and fear the disgraced comedian “totally brainwashed” her into believing he is innocent.

Besotted 39-year-old Laura Gallacher is said to remain fiercely loyal to her sicko husband – despite him being convicted of rape and three sexual assaults.

Relatives worry that Laura has been so swayed by rapist Brand that she refuses to accept the evidence against him, the Mail reports.

It comes after The Sun revealed that Laura – who has stood by her hubby throughout the trial – is in two minds about attending the sentencing hearing tomorrow.

Sources close to her family claim she has been left convinced that the 51-year-old is innocent, and is even determined to support an appeal against his convictions.

One family friend told the Mail: “Russell gets what Russell wants. He has that charm and swagger, and Laura is besotted with him.

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“She goes along with what he wants, it’s like he has totally brainwashed her.”

They added that his absence could give Laura the opportunity to step away from his influence and reassess their relationship.

Brand faces a “lengthy” prison sentence after being found guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault following a trial at Southwark Crown Court.

The offences involved four women and took place between 2005 and 2009.

He was also acquitted of two further counts of rape and one count of attempted indecent assault.

But the split verdict is understood to have strengthened Laura’s belief that her husband was wrongly accused.

A friend told the Mail she believes the jury’s decision to clear him of three charges proves the other allegations were also untrue.

Laura had attended court throughout the trial, sitting in the public gallery as six women gave evidence about their experiences.

She was regularly seen arriving alongside Brand, holding his hand as they entered and left the building.

The mother-of-three also took notes as the women described the allegations against her husband.

Those close to her reportedly noticed what they believed was growing anger as she listened to the evidence, which they claim she dismissed as lies.

In videos shared on the couple’s online show, Sunday Service With The Brands, Laura also spoke about the emotional strain of attending court.

During one recording, she described putting on her “armour” before entering the building.

She said she would begin to feel nervous as soon as she approached the street where the court was situated.

Brand, who has reinvented himself as a born-again Christian, regularly features alongside Laura in the online broadcasts, which include Bible readings, prayers and discussions about family life.

The couple have been married for nine years and share three children- two girls aged nine and seven, and a three-year-old son.

Laura, the daughter of former European Ryder Cup captain Bernard Gallacher, is said to have found the guilty verdict particularly difficult to accept.

Brand was remanded into custody at HMP Wandsworth after the verdict, leaving his wife to leave court without him.

Sources claim she was shocked and extremely upset by his imprisonment and believes he has been badly treated.

Laura is understood to have taken comfort from the three charges on which he was acquitted.

The family are now said to be rallying around Laura and the children as they face an uncertain future.

Her older sister, former Sky Sports presenter Kirsty Gallacher, is among those supporting her.

Bernard and his wife Lesley are also said to have been left heartbroken by the scandal.

The family are particularly concerned about what comes next, with cops continuing to investigate further allegations against Brand.

The comedian faces separate rape allegations involving two more women, including a girl who was 16 at the time.

The Metropolitan Police investigation could lead to further charges and another trial.

Despite his convictions, Laura is reportedly determined to stand by her husband and support him through any future legal proceedings.

The couple had spent much of their time living in Florida before Brand’s trial, but Laura is now expected to remain in the UK while he serves his sentence.

Relatives are said to hope she will spend more time closer to them in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.

One family friend told the Mail: “You can’t help thinking life would have been way less painful for Laura if they had never met.”

They binged a whole series ‘in a day’

Fans might have said farewell to Cillian Murphy in his iconic Peaky Blinders role — and it could be a long wait until the sequel drops.

Whilst Cillian Murphy wrapped up Tommy’s story in Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, a new gangster drama will pick up where the movie left off. Last summer, Netflix confirmed a spinoff is on the way.

Set in the 1950s, the sequel will focus on the next generation of Peaky Blinders: Tommy Shelby’s sons Duke (Jamie Bell) and Charles (Charlie Heaton of Stranger Things). A release date hasn’t been confirmed, but Netflix has greenlit the show for 12 episodes split over two series.

“Once again it will be rooted in Birmingham and will tell the story of a city rising from the ashes of the Birmingham blitz,” said show creator Steven Knight. “The new generation of Shelbys have taken the wheel, and it will be a hell of a ride.”

Until then, a few shows come well recommended by Peaky Blinders fans.

House of Guinness

From the same creator of Peaky Blinders is another family saga: House of Guinness. The drama begins in Dublin in 1868 with the death of the Guinness family patriarch. His four children — “each with dark secrets to hide” — hold the fate of the family brewery empire in their hands. All eight episodes of the first series are free to binge on Netflix now.

Naturally, viewers have drawn comparisons to Peaky Blinders. One said: “It was a little slow to get into, but once you understand the characters it’s a solid 7/10 (if Peaky Blinders is 10/10).”

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Another wrote: “The whole vibe of the scenery is certainly familiar, especially the slowed down walks through the factories. This show (HoG) is less violent, had more of an ensemble cast balanced storyline than a single mastermind.”

A third said: “I binged the entire first season in a day and, while enjoyable and I’m looking forward to another season, it’s def no Peaky Blinders. But I guess that’s a ‘good’ thing? Because Wright can never top his Birmingham-based opus.”

House of Guinness is streaming on Netflix.

Boardwalk Empire

Boardwalk Empire, a gritty Prohibition-era show from HBO, is a highly rated show set in an overlapping time period.

The story kicks off on the day alcohol is outlawed in 1920. Over in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Steve Buscemi stars as “Nucky” Thompson, a corrupt senior politician and the biggest bootlegger in the city. Expect to see some historic figures like Al Capone along the way.

It’s got star power. From the late great Michael K. Williams (The Wire, Lovecraft Country) and Stephen Graham, to the director of the first episode — Martin Scorsese — there is a lot to like.

To some fans, it’s the better show of the two. One fan explained: “Peaky Blinders has some great scenes – and Cillian Murphy is a captivating leading man. And this might sound like blasphemy on a Peaky Blinders subreddit, but I think Boardwalk Empire is easily the better show overall.

“B. Empire also had a lot of exceptional actors (e.g., Buscemi, Michael Shannon, Jeffrey Wright, Stephen Graham etc.) and really satisfying story arcs in most seasons. Excellent cinematography and music, too.”

Boardwalk Empire requires an HBO Max subscription, now available in the UK.

MobLand

This British drama, currently in its second series, is about a crime family headed by their patriarch Conrad Harrigan (Pierce Brosnan). Peaky Blinders alum Tom Hardy plays Harry Da Souza, a street-smart fixer who cleans up the family’s messes.

The first series follows a bloody gang war between the Harrigans and a rival family — the Stevensons. As tensions rise, Harry must do what he can to prevent an all-out war and shield the Harrigans from police scrutiny.

“If you like Peaky Blinders, I think you should try MobLand,” wrote a fan of both shows.

“It’s set in modern day but other than that the tone, the intrigue, the scheming, the brutality, all of them remind me very much of what I love about Peaky Blinders.

“Plus it’s got Alfie in it (Tom Hardy technically) which is always a very good bonus. And without spoiling any plot points there is a very Polly-like character played by Helen Mirren. Anyway give it a try and see what you think!”

MobLand can be streamed on Paramount+ via Prime Video.

A string of hoax alerts causing flight diversions across Europe this week have broadened to include newsrooms.

A new series of bomb threats caused more flight diversions across Europe on Friday, while also expanding to target a number of media organisations.

British broadcaster Sky said it was one of a number of newsrooms that received a bomb threat. “We have carried out a security assessment and reported the matter to the relevant authorities,” a spokesperson said.

Bulgaria’s Nova TV and the Irish public broadcaster RTE received emailed bomb threats from a purported “Mikhail Andropov”, headlined “Message to the West”, portraying the threats as a prelude to more disruptions across Europe.

RTE briefly evacuated staff, including radio and television presenters, in Dublin after an email was received on Friday morning. RTE Radio One presenter David McCullagh later told listeners that the threat warned that a bomb would explode within 45 minutes.

The Irish government said hoax bomb claims were also sent to Virgin Media, Newstalk radio and The Irish Independent newspaper and that it was unclear who was behind them.

“However, these threats come on the heels of the ongoing disruption to aviation around Europe caused by similar threats, and it seems likely that this is a coordinated campaign of disruption,” it said in a statement.

The incidents come a day after hoax bomb threats disrupted more than two dozen flights across Europe on Thursday, and days after other aircraft and a cruise ship received bomb alerts.

‘Hoax threats’ increasing

On Friday, jets escorted airliners flying from Brussels to Sofia and from Prague to Bucharest and Cyprus through Hungarian airspace due to bomb threats, Hungarian Defence Minister Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi said.

He also said NATO had ordered an air patrol near the Hungarian-Romanian border, the first report that the Western defence alliance had become involved.

Danish police said threats were directed at traffic at Copenhagen airport but that there appeared to be no danger to passengers. The airport said it was “operating normally”.

Czech police registered bomb threats to nine flights departing from or arriving in Prague. An airport spokesperson said no flights had been ⁠⁠cancelled as a result.

France said four new bomb threats were made to aircraft flying over French territory, and that all landed safely.

A Ryanair flight from Rome landed as scheduled in Lisbon, CNN Portugal reported.

About half a dozen ‌‌flights were disrupted on Tuesday and more than two dozen on Thursday, some of them making unplanned landings or being escorted to their destinations by fighter jets.

Al Jazeera’s Frances Read, reporting from London on Friday, said that while the threats have not been credible so far, disruptions appear to be widening.

“The number of hoax threats this week is making governments sit up and take notice about where this might be coming from and also think of solutions for how to deal with it,” she said.

RUSSELL Brand has been found guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault following a four-week trial at Southwark Crown Court.

The disgraced former comedian, 51, was remanded in custody after the verdicts on Thursday and is due to be sentenced on Monday.

Russell Brand was found not guilty of two further counts of rape and one count of attempted indecent assault.

His wife Laura Gallacher supported him throughout the trial, while his father Ron Brand was also present at court.

Who is Russell Brand’s wife Laura Gallacher?

Laura, 39, is an author, illustrator and entrepreneur who founded The Joy Journal – a business focused on creativity and activities for families.

She is the daughter of former Ryder Cup captain Bernard Gallacher and younger sister of TV presenter Kirsty Gallacher.

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Laura and Brand first met at the Edinburgh Festival in 2006, where she attended one of his comedy shows.

They started dating but split in 2007 after she discovered he was seeing other women.

Brand went on to marry American singer Katy Perry in 2010, before the pair divorced in 2012.

He rekindled his relationship with Laura in 2015, and they married at a church near Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire in August 2017.

Laura accompanied her husband to Southwark Crown Court during his trial and gave evidence for the defence in October.

She described him as an “amazingly attentive husband” and a “wonderful father”, telling jurors: “I love him very much.”

Laura was in the public gallery when the jury returned its guilty verdicts and appeared visibly distressed as the judge told Brand he faced a significant prison term.

Who are Russell Brand’s parents?

Brand is the only child of Barbara Elizabeth Nichols and Ronald Henry Brand, known as Ron.

His parents separated when he was just six months old, leaving his mother to raise him in Grays, Essex.

Barbara suffered three bouts of cancer during Brand’s childhood, and he sometimes stayed with relatives while she underwent treatment.

The last period of treatment coincided with Brand leaving home at the age of 16.

In 2006, he told the Observer: “I loved my mum madly, but I had a lot of prohibiting, inhibiting things around. My feeling about my childhood was that it was lonely and difficult.”

His father Ron worked as a photographer and was largely absent as Brand was growing up, although they maintained contact.

Ron attended Southwark Crown Court when his son was convicted on November 5.

Speaking to the BBC following the verdicts, he said he was “bemused and shocked”.

He added: “I just didn’t expect this – it’s wrong. It’s devastating.”

How many children does Russell Brand have?

Brand and Laura have three children together – two daughters and a son.

Their eldest daughter was born in November 2016, followed by another girl in July 2018.

The couple welcomed a son in 2023, and have largely kept their kids’ lives out of the public eye.

Laura confirmed during her evidence that they were raising three children together.

Following the emergence of allegations against Brand, the family relocated to Florida in 2024.

After the guilty verdicts, Brand’s barrister Ian Winter KC asked the judge to grant bail as an “act of humanity” so he could say goodbye to his little ones.

However, the request was rejected and he was remanded in custody ahead of sentencing.

The three-part documentary series has already secured top spot in the top 10 charts

True crime fans are being urged to stop what they are doing and binge watch a brand new release that is guaranteed to have your jaw on the floor.

There are plenty of choices at our disposal when it comes to deciding what to watch, but streaming giant Netflix has recently dropped a brand new true crime documentary that everyone needs to get on their watch list.

In what has been dubbed an emotional rollercoaster of a series, the brand new release is from the same producers as Maternal Instinct as it plunges viewers into a 20 year fight for answers.

Titled Taken: Natalee Holloway, the three-part documentary was released on November 4 and has already secured the top spot in the top 10 Series in the UK Today.

An official synopsis teases: “On May 30, 2005, 18-year-old Natalee Holloway vanished on a high school graduation trip to Aruba — and never came home. What followed was years of unanswered questions, a missing teenager, and a mother’s relentless fight for the truth.

“Now, over 20 years later, Natalee’s mother, Beth, is ready to tell the complete story. With exclusive, unprecedented access to Beth and those who were with Natalee when she vanished, this three-part documentary series from Story Syndicate (Maternal Instinct, Titan: The Oceangate Disaster) and directors Dani Sloane and Matthew Galkin is the definitive account of a case that gripped a nation and never let go.

“It’s a story of a mother who refused to stop searching, an investigation that spanned continents, and a daughter whose memory endures. This is Natalee’s story, told at last in full.”

Spanning across three episodes, viewers are already hooked as one person admitted on TikTok: “I am disgusted by this documentary.” They later added: “This documentary takes you on a whirlwind of events, literally 20 years until they get answers.”

In a separate video, another true crime fan praised: “You need to stop whatever your doing, cancel all of your plans and forget about everything else on Netflix because this documentary is about to be number one trending.

“I’m telling you right now everybody is going to be talking about this documentary, my jaw was on the floor watching it.” Another replied: “I’ve just finished it can’t believe what I’ve watched.”

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Over on Facebook, one person penned: “I just watched Taken: The Natalee Holloway Story on Netflix, and I am absolutely disgusted and heartbroken.”

Another echoed: “No I have the full body chills right now. Cannot believe it took that long. And the WhatsApp literally had me screaming”, as a third added: “Natalee’s case has always haunted me.”

On IMDb, a reviewer echoed: “This is a shocking, disturbing and often sickening story, but an important one to tell… Ultimately, this is as much a story about a mother’s love and determination as it is about a horrific crime. A compelling documentary that stays with you long after the final episode.”

Taken: Natalee Holloway can be streamed on Netflix

Flights across Europe have been diverted, grounded and escorted by fighter jets in response to a wave of bomb threats, marking a second major outbreak of false alerts in less than a week.

On Thursday, planes departing from 16 countries, including Ireland, the United Kingdom, Spain and Denmark, were affected. Flights have either been forced to divert to alternate locations or undergo additional security checks. On Friday, the threats continued.

Authorities have deployed bomb disposal teams and military fighter jets in several countries. So far, security inspections following threats have yielded no evidence of explosives or suspicious materials on board aircraft, and no passenger has reported being harmed.

What happened?

On Friday, a Ryanair flight landed in Lisbon, Portugal at 8am after a bomb threat was made by phone to the authorities, Italian media has reported. A security operation was mounted as soon as the plane landed. Separately, the control tower in Fiumicino, Italy, received an alert about a device aboard a Wizzair flight to Rome from Paris. The Wizzair flight was diverted to Venice where police were clearing the area around the plane.

On Thursday, there were numerous threats, including the following:

• In Poland, authorities received a warning about a potentially dangerous object on board a Polish Airlines flight already taxiing on the runway at Warsaw Chopin Airport. The flight to Paris was prevented from taking off and passengers disembarked, but a search by security services found nothing dangerous on board, an airline spokesman told local media.
• In Warsaw, a LOT flight to Paris was also halted and passengers were transferred to another ‌aircraft.
• A LOT flight from London Heathrow to Warsaw-Chopin Airport was forced to land at the Polish capital’s other airport, Warsaw-Modlin, following a threat. Nothing was found on board.
• The Italian Air Force escorted a Finnair plane into Rome after an anonymous bomb-threat email was sent to Aeroporti di Roma (ADR) and other companies at Fiumicino. The plane arrived safely.
• In Bulgaria, a Ryanair flight from London to Sofia was diverted to make an emergency landing in Plovdiv, the country’s second city, following a bomb threat.
• In the space of just 20 minutes, Spanish authorities reported receiving three emailed bomb threats regarding two Air Europa departures from Madrid to Paris and four inbound Iberia flights from Rome and Milan, Spain’s Guardia Civil said.
• A flight ⁠from Cork in Ireland was delayed for 90 minutes when the airport received a threat, the airport operator said.
• A Ryanair flight from Pescara in Italy to Charleroi in Belgium was subject to a false bomb alarm, state news agency Ansa reported. Local media in Belgium reported that security protocols were triggered after the word “bomb” was found written in one of the aircraft’s restrooms.

What happens when a threat is received?

When an airline is notified of a threat to an aircraft, it is passed to a team of assessors, said Joji Waites, director of flight safety, policy and regulation at BALPA, the British Airlines Pilots’ Association.

“These assessors use standard processes to grade the threat and decide whether the threat is red (credible), amber (partially credible) or green (not credible). Amber is not considered an appropriate assessment if the plane is airborne,” said Waites.

After receiving a threat, an aircraft is directed to an area well away from the airport buildings. Passengers are disembarked and screened while border police with sniffer dogs inspect the plane, according to an airport official.

Is this the first time threats like this have been made?

No.

The incidents follow a series of hoax bomb threats earlier this week. On Monday, a flight from the UK to Bulgaria was diverted after a threat that turned out to be without substance. On Tuesday, seven planes across Europe were searched or diverted because of malicious hoax bomb alerts.

And also this week, there have also been cyberattacks on supermarkets in several European cities, with hackers changing the temperature on refrigeration in an apparent attempt to spoil food.

How unusual is this?

Philip Baum, a visiting professor of aviation security at Coventry University, said the scale and coordinated nature of these latest incidents are unusual.

“There are indeed individual airlines that experience a bomb threat every day, but most of those are very quickly evaluated and determined to be non-specific, and the aircraft do not divert,” said Baum.

What sets the latest incidents apart, he said, is that authorities across several European countries appear to be treating the threats as credible enough to require planes to land and undergo security inspections. Baum noted that each flight disruption could cost airlines as much as $250,000.

The UK’s government called the latest disruption “malicious hoax threats”. London Heathrow, the busiest airport for passenger traffic in Europe, was also targeted. It says it has one of the most robust aviation safety systems in the world, but countries still have to take the threats seriously and figure out how to stop any actors from creating further disruptions to air travel across Europe.

Who is behind this?

The European Commissioner for Transport said it is too early to say who’s behind these attacks or whether the incidents are even connected.

European governments have so far refrained from blaming anyone. But those which have supported Ukraine are wary of hybrid attacks. Germany has directly pointed the finger at Russia for recent drone incursions at Leipzig-Halle Airport. Moscow rejected the accusations.

EU officials are aware of the possibility that Russia would step up its hybrid campaign. In September, the Danish Defence Intelligence Service warned that this could happen to pressure adversaries in the West and NATO.

However, Moscow has denied being involved in the threats to aviation in Europe and there is no evidence of any involvement by Russia, Iran or any proxy groups linked to them.

Ritu Pant always made sure that her merchant navy officer husband told her two things before departing on an assignment.

“I always noted the details and the name of his ship and his emergency contact details in case of a crisis,” says Ritu, who is based in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand.

That’s what she did on April 25, when her husband Ajay left Paradip Port in the state of Odisha on board the MT Smyrtos, a crude oil tanker. Her husband had been a sailor for 18 years, and spent six or seven months a year at sea. But growing threats to seamen – amid the wars in the Middle East and between Russia and Ukraine, and from pirates roaming the high seas – had increased her jitters in recent years.

Yet it was through a social media post that she learned in mid-June that the ship had been captured. Not by pirates, but by the British armed forces, because the MT Smyrtos is under Western sanctions for allegedly working as part of Russia’s shadow fleet, a network of vessels that help Moscow evade United States and European economic restrictions to continue to sell oil and gas, amid the war on Ukraine.

Now Ajay Pant faces charges of flouting United Kingdom sanctions against Russia by commandeering the ship. It’s the first known instance when a European nation has kept a ship captain under arrest on such grounds, and could set a worrying precedent, say lawyers and groups advocating for the rights of seafarers. “This is a unique case,” said Tony Patten, the UK representative at the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), an organisation that works for the rights of seafarers.

Other European countries have also taken over ships that they accuse of violating sanctions against Russia, but while they’ve kept the vessels, they have so far let the sailors go. In March this year, a captain of a suspected Russian shadow fleet was prosecuted in absentia by a French court. In another case from Finland, a court dismissed charges against the captain of a Russian oil tanker accused of damaging undersea cables in the Baltic Sea on account of lack of jurisdiction. In other cases, European nations have set commercial sailors free with fines.

By contrast, Ajay faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

The case has also underlined a growing tension between maritime traffic through international waters – the Smyrtos was not in British territorial waters when it was captured – and the enforcement by countries of sanctions that are not approved by the United Nations.

‘Situation of the sea was very bad’

The open seas have always been dangerous, but the risks have mounted as wars and piracy have turned ships and their crew into active targets for militaries and mercenaries alike.

At least 24 seafarers have been killed in the Strait of Hormuz since the US and Israel launched their war on Iran in February. More than 120 commercial ships and tankers have been attacked in this period in the waterway, which used to transport a fifth of the world’s energy supplies before the start of the war.

The death toll in the Black Sea is even grimmer: At least 40 sailors have been killed in more than 570 attacks on vessels there. Piracy off the coast of Somalia has resurged, too.

For Ritu Pant, all of that meant increased insecurity each time her husband went on a ship.“I was quite worried,” she said, describing her thoughts while Ajay was at sea. “When I talked to Ajay, I would tell him that you need to keep in touch always; you need to tell me that you’re fine and everything is safe around because the situation of the sea was very bad.”

But it was not uncommon for her to not hear from her husband for days, due to network disruptions at sea. So Ritu would track updates of her husband’s ship online, a practice that has become increasingly common among families of sailors at sea.

On June 14, the MT Smyrtos was chugging through the English Channel when the Royal Marines Commandos intercepted it, in what was a first-of-its-kind operation authorised by then British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

At the time, the ship was in international waters, outside the territorial jurisdiction of the UK. Yet Chinook, Merlin Mk4 and Wildcat helicopters from the Maritime Air Group; a Royal Air Force P-8A Poseidon Maritime Patrol Aircraft; a frigate; and a mine countermeasures ship participated in the military operation to take control of the vessel, according to the British Ministry of Defence.

The ship was carrying oil from Russia and was on track to pass through the Suez Canal on its way to India, its destination.

“This successful operation delivers yet another blow to Russia and reminds those fueling Putin’s war in Ukraine that we will not let them hide,” Starmer said in a post on X.

What followed was equally unprecedented; charges of allegedly breaching Russian sanctions were brought against Ajay, who has since been in detention in the UK. After an initial court hearing, his bail was denied.

‘Criminalisation of seafarers’

Enforcement of maritime sanctions brought against Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has been tenuous at best, which makes the Smyrtos case “very unique”, said David Hammond, a lawyer and founder of Human Rights At Sea, a nonprofit and UN-accredited organisation advocating for the rights of people living, working, transiting and operating at sea.

“It is unique in terms of the interception and the interdiction of a vessel that had been sanctioned, having passed through the English Channel as an international transit corridor. It’s, in my understanding, not happened before,” he said.

On the one hand, Hammond explained, the outcome of the case will determine how coastal states enforce sanctions against vessels. But, he said, it also underscores the risks of “criminalisation of seafarers”.

Hammond said Ajay Pant’s case was part of a broader pattern of “shipping crews finding themselves in a position where they are arrested for many crimes, such as trafficking or movement of drugs that they’re not even aware of having been put on board the ship”.

He cited the example of Ali Albokhari, a Finnish-Syrian chief mate on a cargo ship, who was detained by Turkish authorities in 2023 after 137kg (302lb) of cocaine was found on board.

Patten of the ITF echoed similar sentiments. “Our stance is that seafarers being penalised automatically when something like this happens isn’t fair. We would always uphold the right of the seafarer,” he said.

Hammond said Ajay’s case was especially without parallel. “In the case of the Smyrtos,  it could be argued that Captain Pant is being criminalised for simply doing his job,” he said, adding that the direction in which the British courts rule will set a new precedent for masters’ accountability over movement of sanctioned goods.

The case, Hammond added, “is a perfect storm in a global storm of impunity; who is accountable and who enforces accountability”.

“And the unintended consequences of which are yet to be seen,” he warned.

‘Horrible year at sea’

The case also raises wider concerns, Hammond said, about how shipping companies and the countries vessels traverse often treat seafarers. “Undeniably, seafarers are seen as disposable assets,” he said, “disposable because they can be easily replaced but concurrently, as assets for assuring continuous global movement of goods by sea.”

The killings in the Strait of Hormuz and the Black Sea have underscored that sense among sailors and their families – that the lives of those who keep the global economy moving are seen as disposable by those in power.

In a statement shared with Al Jazeera, the International Maritime Organization confirmed at least 66 sailors were killed in various conflicts this year, and hundreds of others injured. Many sailors are also still missing and feared to be dead. “It has been a horrible year for people at sea,” Patten said. “Problems have always existed, but conflicts and geopolitical change have certainly heightened them.”

Ajay Pant’s case also shines new light on a growing number of instances where navies have gone outside their territorial waters to seize tankers that they claim are violating their domestic sanctions regimes.

Since February, when the US and Israel launched their war on Iran, US forces have intercepted and captured several cargo ships in the Indian Ocean. These vessels were seized not just far from US territorial waters but also far from the theatre of their war, on accusations that they were helping Iran evade US sanctions.

The US and the UK argue that they are acting within the bounds of international law.

The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea permits a warship to visit a cargo ship to verify its flag where there are reasonable grounds to suspect the vessel is without nationality. The British Defence Ministry, in its statement after the seizure of the Smyrtos, said that if a vessel is determined to be stateless, the UK can exercise criminal and maritime enforcement powers under its domestic Policing and Crime Act.

The Smyrtos, like many ships that are accused of belonging to Russia’s “shadow fleet”, has frequently changed its flag. The ship had once previously been registered in The Gambia, and then adopted a Cameroon flag in December 2025. When it departed from a Russian port, it had a Cameroonian flag, but Lloyd’s List Intelligence reported that the ship had been removed from Cameroon’s register earlier, in June. It is owned by a Chinese company.

According to the British Defence Ministry, Russia sells about 75 percent of its oil using such shadow tankers.

But whether militaries have the right to enforce their domestic sanctions and laws in international waters against individuals and vessels that are not registered in their territory remains a contested question in international law.

The capture of such vessels raises “a much bigger issue” of “the freedom of navigation at sea”, said Hammond.

To Ajay’s family and those advocating for him, it also raises a more human question: If a cargo ship captain passing through international waters can be captured and tried by nations for allegedly violating their domestic laws, is any sailor safe?

Anchored with hope

That’s a question that Ritu has lived with in the past few months, forcing the former school principal into advocacy not just for her husband’s release, but for seafarer rights globally.

“Ajay’s case goes beyond just our family, and could be a landmark judgement for seafarers worldwide,” she said. “It raises the fundamental question of whether a master of a ship can be criminalised for decisions that are beyond his authority, knowledge or control.”

The journey has been a difficult one, she said.

“Ajay was the primary breadwinner of his family, and I have also been forced to give up my work to focus on this case,” the mother of an eight-year-old and a one-year-old said.

“He has also been a caregiver to his elderly parents,” she added, saying that for the first few days after the arrest, she kept the news from them, worried for their health. “I wouldn’t allow the daily newspaper in the house and stopped sending my older daughter to school, afraid that someone would say something hurtful to her.”

Eventually, Ritu informed the family and prepared them for the struggles ahead.

“The hardest part is having to do this across continents. We have only spoken to him over short calls, and he has had no personal visitors since I went to meet him in August,” she said. “I don’t want him to feel that he has been forgotten.”

But despite the hardships, she remains hopeful, as support has poured in from the global seafarers community. “When I started posting on social media, I received so many messages from families and wives of sailors,” she said. “Every seafarer’s family I’ve talked to relates to this. So many sailors are getting targeted right now in conflict at sea; they are being made scapegoats.”

Now, she’s preparing for Ajay’s upcoming trial. “I have to bring him back home,” she said. “For his family, but also because no seafarer should be treated in this way.”

RUSSELL Brand was “petrified” tonight after being whisked to a high security jail after his rape and sexual assault conviction.

Brand, 51 – due to be sentenced on Monday – was being monitored around the clock by guards after he was found guilty.

The fallen comic and TV star had to hand over his clothes in reception before being strip-searched and scanned.

He was then taken to an induction wing and given a ‘first-night pack’ which consists of toiletries including a toothbrush and toothpaste and a food pack including cereal, tea, milk and sugar.

The packs also contain treats including Polos, juice sticks, and digestive biscuits.

Brand was also handed one toilet roll and given two pairs of grey prison-issue jogging bottoms plus t-shirts and sweatshirts and underwear.

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He was allowed one three-minute phonecall behind bars – likley to have been made to wife Laura, 39, who supported him during his Southwark Crown Court trial.

But that will be his only call for a week as all phone numbers have to be approved and assigned a PIN.

Brand – understood to have whisked to either Wandsworth or Belmarsh in London – was monitored around the clock and blocked from mixing with other lags.

His first-night meal was an “inedible” microwave offering in reception.

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Staff conducted a first-night interview in which they asked the star about his state of mind and checked he was not a danger to himself.

New inmates are also asked about religious beliefs and Brand was offered a bible.

He was also offered a vape pack.

Brand – who lived in a Hollywood Hills mansion in California when allegations against him were first raised – will tomorrow be assessed by a nurse and a wellbeing specialist.

A source said: “The first night for anyone in a jail is really daunting – and Brand was petrified.

“It will be a massive shock to the system to him and he will be monitored around the clock.

“All prisoners have to strip off in reception which is humiliating and a real wake-up call.

“He will be in prison-issue clothes and given a first-night pack, which will be a world away from what he is used to.

“All his cockiness will disappear as he takes in his new surroundings.

“But he will be relatively safe and watched around the clock by officers and banged up away from other inmates to start with.

“Brand will be in London until and after his sentencing but is then likely to be moved somewhere that specialises in sex offenders where he is more out of harm’s way.”

Russell Brand tried to block rape trial before it even began

Russell Brand tried to smear journalists as “criminals” in a doomed bid to avoid standing trial, it can now be revealed.

However, his bid failed when the judge simply ruled the jury could be made up of people who had not seen the 2023 media reporting. He rubbished Brand’s claim that the former comedian’s reputation had been “destroyed”, pointing to a sell-out Wembley show he performed after being publicly accused of rape.

RUSSELL Brand has been found guilty of sex attacks on a string of victims as part of a depraved campaign to sleep with 5,000 women.

The 51-year-old became a “ruthless, calculated and manipulative” predator as he sought to satisfy his “voracious” sexual appetite.

Brand preyed on women between 1999 and 2009 and used his growing fame – from presenting Big Brother’s Big Mouth and Hollywood movies – to target the victims in a range of locations.

The three counts he was found guilty of today include a sexual assault at a Soho bar, where Brand was accused of touching a woman’s breasts while they were talking about Big Brother in 2004.

Brand has also been found guilty of sexual assault at a radio station in a “violent, sloppy and frenzied” attack in 2005.

He raped a woman at his Hampstead townhouse in 2009, telling her to “clean up after herself” afterwards, it was found.

The jury also found him guilty of sexually assaulting a Channel 4 worker in 2009, who was forced to give him a massage.

He was found not guilty on three other counts – attempted indecent assault and two counts of rape.

The trial at Southwark Crown Court was told the offences took place when Brand’s “public profile was taking off”.

Instantly recognisable by his trademark skinny jeans, back-combed hair and heavy eye make up, Brand became known for falling out of nightclubs with female admirers draped from his arm.

Some of his victims were lulled into a false sense of security by Brand and believed the comedian was gay as part of his “strategy” to dupe women.

Once they were behind closed doors, the fiend’s mask would drop and he’d become a “monster” hell-bent on fulfilling his rapacious quest to bed 5,000 women.

Prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones KC said the star was “childlike in his expectation that his every desire should be met” and only cared about his “birth right to orgasm”.

She told jurors all the women were “wholly unconnected” but each “described a pattern that resonates with who Brand was in the period 1999 to 2009”.

Ms Karmy-Jones added: “Six women who have nothing to gain, who have not sought the limelight, who have not looked out for some form of publicity, who have not taken part in a documentary, not made claims for compensation.

“There is no benefit to them, apart from perhaps some closure by coming before you and telling you their accounts of what happened to them so long ago.”

One woman who Brand raped at his home told how the comedian made her feel like a “piece of meat”.

She told she had met the celeb after seeing his show at the Hammersmith Apollo in London with a friend in 2009.

He told her his age range was from “16 to death” before she was invited to a backstage bar where they kissed and had a threesome, it was said.

The woman said she went to his home the next day where Brand told her: “Your hair smells funny”.

He then made her take a shower and wash her hair while he watched through a glass shower cubicle.

Once in the bedroom, the woman said they had consensual sex after he told her: “This is the best decision you’ve ever made, well done”.

She told the court Brand raped her and looked “absolutely f***ing horrified” – making her think he would apologise.

But the woman added: “But actually what he said was ‘you need to clear up the mess that you’ve made’.”

Another woman was in her 20s working at a radio station in the mid-2000s when Brand sexually assaulted her.

She told the court Brand was a “perfect stranger” to her at the time and said his assault was “violent”, “sloppy” and “frenzied”.

The woman also said she had locked eyes” with one of his entourage and was “pleading with her” to stop what was happening.

One victim said Brand “lunged” at her and grabbed her breasts when they were talking about Big Brother in a Soho bar in July 2004.

At the time, he had a “big, weird grin” on his face and “quite strongly” pulled her into the toilet where he orally raped her, she told cops.

When she protested, Brand told her: “Oh come on don’t be a spoil sport, you want to.”

The sixth woman worked for Channel 4 when she met Brand while he was filming a project.

She said she was informed Brand was “unhappy” and the situation would not improve unless she gave him a massage.

The woman said he walked up to a chair she was sitting on and placed his head directly into her groin area.

During his evidence, Brand wore a crucifix and wrung his hands together as he claimed his “promiscuous” past had been twisted into the allegations made against him.

He had admitted having an “obsession” with sex when he was younger but claimed consent is “non-negotiable” and “more important than sex itself”.

Brand added: “I do recognise I have been a very determined and focused man and with regard to the latter, with women, of course, which is the subject of my trial.

“I’ve been persuasive, seductive, begging and flirting, and dedicated a lot of my life to what seems now beyond-reckless philandering and idiocy.”

He admitted it had been “wrong” of him to use his fame for sex but denied he had ever forced himself on a woman.

Brand also tried to paint himself as someone who had reformed but whose life had been “consumed” by the allegations.

He moaned about how he had lost friends and said he was unable to persuade anyone to give evidence on his behalf.

But Brand had one supporter in the public gallery – his wife Laura Gallacher – sister of sports presenter Kirsty – who took to the stand herself after weeks of walking into the court hand-in-hand with Brand each day.

The mum gushed over the star – calling him an “amazingly attentive husband” and a “kind and a wonderful father”.

She told jurors “I love him very much” and claimed they always have sex “at my pace”.

Discussing when they began dating in 2007, Laura added: “I was not experienced, I had only had one partner before Russell.

“I felt entirely cared for and looked after by Russell.”

She told jurors Brand “respected my view” if she said she did not want to do something.

Laura said she was 19 when she met Brand, who was 31 at the time, at Edinburgh Festival.

The mum, who shares three children with the comic, revealed they broke up in summer 2007 when she became “very aware” of Brand’s promiscuity.

She added: “When I met him I was aware that he liked women, and I was aware towards the latter half of that year that he was engaging with other women.

“I wasn’t interested in having a relationship with him if he was sleeping with other people.

“I was invested, we both had told each other we loved each other but it was clear it was difficult for him to be monogamous.”

She said they got back together again as a couple in 2015 and married in 2017.

Brand, who displayed little emotion during the trial, was seen in the dock beaming as his wife spoke on his behalf.

He even laughed when she told the court: “We do have many friends and there are colleagues, and we are grateful for those people.”

In recent years, Brand had re-invented himself into a born-again Christian influencer – an image he bolstered in court by clutching a bible each day.

But his new life in the US came crumbling down when the allegations came to light in a Channel 4 Dispatches and he was thrust back into the public eye.

Brand is now facing a lengthy prison term when he is sentenced.

Netflix fans have claimed they are hooked from the very first scene

Netflix’s latest addition has left fans immediately hooked and binging as many episodes as possible.

An ‘intense’ crime thriller is now available on the streaming giant’s platform. Some have already claimed that it is better than other popular shows such as High Potential and The Rookie.

Dozens of episodes of Will Trent have recently been added to the streamer’s ever changing library. The show is based on a series of novels written by Karin Slaughter. The author penned a dozen books featuring the character as recently as 2024.

Like the original stories, the series follows Special Agent Will Trent who was abandoned at birth and endured a harsh coming-of-age in Atlanta’s overwhelmed foster-care system. This had a lasting effect on him and, despite being dyslexic, he rose the ranks at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

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He is highly observant and determined to make sure that nobody else feels as he did. Despite achieving the highest clearance rate of cases in his department, he finds this causes some friction on the team.

While it originally aired in the US back in 2023, the first three seasons of the show are now available on Netflix for UK based subscribers. Even better news is that if users find themselves binge watching it quickly enough, they can find the fourth over on Disney+, with a fifth season expected to release early next year.

Some even suggest that it is superior to similar crime dramas, in particular a few very popular ones considered to be in the more ‘cosy crime’ subgenre. A fan shared on Reddit : “I think most people will agree with this, but I haven’t seen it mentioned before, so… Will Trent gets lumped together with The Rookie and High Potential but I think it’s better, deeper, darker and funnier than the others.”

Another agreed and replied: “I agree with you. I only lump together those other shows with Will Trent because they’re the same kind of procedural drama. I think Will Trent is of a higher calibre, though. Also, as a mother through (private) adoption, I think the foster care angle is very well done, for the most part.”

One fan claimed: “I think Will Trent stands alone. It is truly the most unique show, with the most intense scenes — I feel the same way about them that I do when watching The Pitt.”

Someone else added: “I jumped so hard in the first episode! I was hooked and couldn’t stop! I gobbled up the first three episodes voraciously! I have been binge watching the series since.”

Other viewers have shared their recommendation online stating they were hooked from the first scene. Someone else made a different comparison as they posted: “I love this show it’s like Monk combined with Elementary. Quirky Sherlock type with a bad upbringing and makes it work despite his dyslexia and his on-again-off-again relationship with a fellow cop.”

Will Trent is streaming on Netflix and Disney+