This was not the Russell Brand most people will remember from the height of his noughties TV and comedy fame. The flamboyant character with big gestures and provocative one-liners was not the man we saw in the courtroom. During his rape trial, Brand mostly sat impassively in the dock, staring straight ahead.
His stillness was striking. His face betrayed no visible emotion or reaction as the string of allegations against him were outlined in detail over several days. After a three-week trial, the 51-year-old was found guilty of one charge of rape and three charges of sexual assault.
He was found not guilty of two counts of rape and one count of attempted indecent assault. The allegations spanned a 10-year period from 1999 to 2009 and involved six female complainants. The Brand on show in this trial seemed courteous to a fault.
Yet the polite, respectful man we saw holding doors open and thanking court staff was in striking contrast to how he was portayed in the evidence we heard. His victims told of a brash, arrogant, sexually voracious man who did not take no for an answer from the women he preyed on; a ruthless rapist and manipulative sex offender. Flashes of the Brand we were used to seeing in the media were not totally absent - they often manifested themselves in the morning when he would arrive at Southwark Crown Court.
Mostly dressed in variations of dark jackets and trousers, long scarves and open-neck shirts, he would often make a beeline for the media scrum outside the courthouse. On day one of the trial, he confidently uttered the words: "Today, I feel blessed. I feel of course concerned, but hopeful that this process will lead to good outcomes for everybody involved.
That's my prayer." In all my years of covering court cases I've never seen a defendant address journalists during a trial. His professed hatred for the mainstream media clearly did not stop him from having his say. Sitting on the floor of a court corridor in the early days of the trial, I was tapping on my phone when Brand walked past.
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