Russell Brand sentenced to 10-and-a-half years in prison for rape and sexual assault

The verdicts were delivered on Thursday following a four-week trial at Southwark Crown Court in London.

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

He will automatically have to sign the Sex Offences’ Register as part of his sentence because of the crimes he committed.

Laura Brand was seated just a few feet away from the former comedian in the glass-walled dock as he was being sentenced.

Earlier, as he arrived in the dock on Monday morning, Brand mouthed to his wife: “It’ll be okay, I don’t know how, but it will”, and he was seen praying and making a cross sign with his hand as the victim statements were read out.

Brand’s barrister Ian Winter KC put forward six character references, including one from Georgina Baillie, the granddaughter of the late actor Andrew Sachs.

Baillie was thrust into the spotlight in 2008 when Brand and Jonathan Ross left offensive messages about her on her grandfather’s answering machine during a Radio 2 broadcast.

Winter also told the court that the former entertainer’s wife Laura Brand, who gave evidence in her husband’s defence during the trial, was experiencing “total devastation” at the verdicts.

He said Mr and Mrs Brand were “currently wrestling with how to exactly explain to a child who’s just turned 10 what has happened here”.

“It brings home the consequences of this conduct to totally innocent people who have been caught up in it,” he said.

Sentencing Brand, the judge said: “I am very conscious that your imprisonment will deprive your children of the presence of their father.

“That sad loss to them, however, is caused by your serious offending.”