Bear Grylls says justice served and hails victims after Russell Brand sex-crime conviction
Bear Grylls, the adventurer and host of “Man vs. Wild,” has spoken after a London jury convicted Russell Brand on Thursday of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault. Brand was acquitted of two other rape charges and one count of attempted indecent assault. He had pleaded not guilty and denied all allegations. After the verdict he was taken into police custody ahead of sentencing on Monday.
The charges related to accusations that Brand raped three women at various locations between 1999 and 2009. One of those women also accused him of sexual assault as well as oral rape. He additionally faced a count of attempted indecent assault at MTV’s U.K. offices in 2001 and a count of sexual assault in 2009.
Grylls had been a guest at Brand’s 2024 baptism in the River Thames, less than a year after the Sunday Times and Channel 4’s “Dispatches” first aired the allegations. Brand had appeared on Grylls’ show “Running Wild” in 2023, before that series was released, and later converted to Christianity, discussing his faith widely on social media.
In a post on X on Friday, Grylls said Brand’s faith had seemed genuine at the private baptism and that he had also visited people in prisons, arguing that people of faith are called to love and serve anyone, that “it is the sick that need healing,” and that judgment belongs to the courts and God. He added that he would not want to discourage anyone’s coming to faith. He also said it was right that justice had now been served and that he could not imagine how hard the time had been for the victims, whom he called “the heroes of the day.”
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