Russell Brand’s conviction for rape and three other sexual assaults has brought renewed attention to his public clash with Bob Geldof at the 2006 NME Awards.
Brand, 51, is being held at HMP Wandsworth in south London and is due to be sentenced on Monday after jurors at Southwark Crown Court found him guilty of four sexual offences.
The comedian was convicted of raping a 21-year-old fan after meeting her following a 2009 stand-up performance at the Hammersmith Apollo. He was also found guilty of groping an MTV worker at a party in a Soho bar in 2004, although he was cleared of orally raping her in a toilet.
Brand was additionally convicted of sexually assaulting a Capital Radio worker in 2005 and a Channel 4 worker during a forced massage in 2009.
The verdict has resurfaced footage of the moment Geldof, who had just been named Hero of the Year, confronted Brand on stage at the awards ceremony.
Brand had introduced the Irish singer by saying: “Of course, the winner is Live 8 so please welcome to the stage Sir Bobby Gandalf.”
As Geldof went up to accept the award, he brushed past Brand and told the audience: “Russell Brand, what a c***.” The remark was met with laughter and applause, while Brand appeared unimpressed.
Brand later returned to the microphone to congratulate Geldof, before making a reference to the singer’s career and his 1979 hit with The Boomtown Rats, I Don’t Like Mondays.
“Bob Geldof there, obviously an amazing man to whom we have a lot to be grateful, not in calling me a c*** of course,” Brand said. “Really it’s no surprise that he’s such an expert on famine, he has after all been dining out on ‘I Don’t Like Mondays’ for 30 years.”
Brand had been linked to Geldof’s second daughter, Peaches Geldof, in 2006. Peaches died from a heroin overdose aged 25 in 2014.
Geldof’s eldest daughter, Fifi, later criticised Brand in 2015 after he joked about drug use at a fundraising event for Focus 12, a charity specialising in drug and alcohol addiction treatment. She described him as an “unfunny b*****d” and an “uber-douche extraordinaire”.
Geldof’s former wife and the mother of Fifi, Peaches and Pixie, Paula Yates, died of a heroin overdose in 2000.
Brand was cleared of raping a woman he met at a cabaret show during the 1999 Labour Party conference in Bournemouth. He was also found not guilty of attempting to drag an MTV worker into a toilet to indecently assault her in 2001.
Mr Justice Bentham told Brand: “You’ve been convicted of a number of offences including rape. The consequence of that is inevitably a significant custodial term.”
A rape conviction can carry a life sentence, while sexual assault convictions carry a maximum sentence of 10 years for each count.
