The Celebrity Abusers Thread

[d-d-d-dAz]

From everything i've read, the likelihood is if he's ever found guilty of more instances of rape, he won't spend a significantly longer period of time in prison. The judge was clear about the severity of the punishment being in part because of a 'pattern of behaviour' over a 5 year period, so if the new cases make it to court and are proven (and are from the same period), they'll probably give him a nominal increase in sentence (pushing the 9 year sentence to, say, 12 or 13 years) but keep them concurrent.

That would change if there's hundreds of provable cases obviously, but its a high bar for a rape conviction (as seen by him being found not guilty of a few already) and you'd imagine given the high profile nature of this case since 2023 we'd know if there were 00's of cases making their way through the system.

It's one of the things that annoys me about people saying its a stitch up, or that he's not been treated fairly because he speaks 'truth to power'; if the 'establishment' wanted to they could pin him to a fucking wall and keep him there for 50 years and no one would really bat an eyelid. As it is, it's been a gruelling process and multiple defendents still weren't given the justice they were after, because the system does set such a high bar for convictions.

[johnnyboy]

53 minutes ago, Tim Healys Chutney Spoon said:

What saddens me most is the number of comments of 'we all knew it was going on' and 'it was well known what he was like' and yet noone thought 'fuck it, I'm going to do whats right, irrespective of personal consequence'. I know he was influential and had a lot of 'power' but surely someone somewhere would have done and said something?

Just as a for instance I'll pretend I'm a well know comedian who is a wrong 'un.

If you say something can you stand it up or is this something you "know?"  If you can't stand it up I'm getting my highly paid lawyers to take you to the cleaners as I've historically been incredibly litigious.  Even if you can stand it up is it enough for the police and CPS to action it or will I be able to spin it via my highly paid PR firm and my mates in the gutter press?

I don't even need to mention the sway I have in the industry that could prevent you getting any further work. 

Does your "irrespective of personal consequence" include being able to keep a roof over your head and feed your kids?  I hope not as I'll be having your house and making sure you never work on any channel that wants to book me whilst I'm in high demand.

Edited 22 hours ago by johnnyboy

[Chili]

28 minutes ago, johnnyboy said:

Just as a for instance I'll pretend I'm a well know comedian who is a wrong 'un.

If you say something can you stand it up or is this something you "know?"  If you can't stand it up I'm getting my highly paid lawyers to take you to the cleaners as I've historically been incredibly litigious.  Even if you can stand it up is it enough for the police and CPS to action it or will I be able to spin it via my highly paid PR firm and my mates in the gutter press?

I don't even need to mention the sway I have in the industry that could prevent you getting any further work. 

Does your "irrespective of personal consequence" include being able to keep a roof over your head and feed your kids?  I hope not as I'll be having your house and making sure you never work on any channel that wants to book me whilst I'm in high demand.

He sounds awful, they should bring back the death penalty.

Edited 21 hours ago by Chili

[Dead Mike]

1 hour ago, Tim Healys Chutney Spoon said:

What saddens me most is the number of comments of 'we all knew it was going on' and 'it was well known what he was like' and yet noone thought 'fuck it, I'm going to do whats right, irrespective of personal consequence'. I know he was influential and had a lot of 'power' but surely someone somewhere would have done and said something?

There's a world of difference between lots of people hearing the same stories & rumours and actually knowing a crime has been committed.

When reporting crimes to the police they tend to want details. Turning up at the station & saying 'I've heard this person is a wrong un'. No smoke without fire' isn't really enough to warrant an investigation. 

[Mr_Danger]

41 minutes ago, johnnyboy said:

Just as a for instance I'll pretend I'm a well know comedian who is a wrong 'un.

If you say something can you stand it up or is this something you "know?"  If you can't stand it up I'm getting my highly paid lawyers to take you to the cleaners as I've historically been incredibly litigious.  Even if you can stand it up is it enough for the police and CPS to action it or will I be able to spin it via my highly paid PR firm and my mates in the gutter press?

I don't even need to mention the sway I have in the industry that could prevent you getting any further work. 

Does your "irrespective of personal consequence" include being able to keep a roof over your head and feed your kids?  I hope not as I'll be having your house and making sure you never work on any channel that wants to book me whilst I'm in high demand.

To be fair Katherine Ryan was less than subtle when talking about a well known celebrity co star being a predator.

[Chest Rockwell]

There's a good video doing the rounds from when she talked to Louis Theroux about this topic in the past that addresses this point specificall

[johnnyboy]

 

[Tim Healys Chutney Spoon]

1 hour ago, Dead Mike said:

There's a world of difference between lots of people hearing the same stories & rumours and actually knowing a crime has been committed.

When reporting crimes to the police they tend to want details. Turning up at the station & saying 'I've heard this person is a wrong un'. No smoke without fire' isn't really enough to warrant an investigation. 

Agreed but if its as  'open secret' as has been made out that people knew things, the right thing would still have been to stand up for whats right and all those poor women (and I'd bet there's a lot more too that still haven't come forward) would have had a chance for justice much sooner. 

 

I do get the sentiment though but still think even with his 'I'm the star here and you're not' attitude that @johnnyboy alluded to above the right thing would have been to say something, even if it was to an investigative journalist such as seems to have happened here. 

 

I did read a shocking report earlier where one lady had gone to the police and they took no further action so she began harassing Brand and his partner (not agreeing to that method BTW but we dont know what she was going through at that time) so he took out a court order to the extent that basically shes not allowed to say anything about it to the police at all or its a breach of a court order and she could end up in prison. How the hell have we made it possible for the victims to be silenced like this? 

https://socialworkworld.org/russell-brand-injunction-accuser-police-court-order/

 

Ok so it appears, according to Jemima Goldsmith (Brands partner at the time), not to have been true of any dodgy goings on, but I wonder if others have been forced into similar positions and also are unable to speak out?

Edited 20 hours ago by Tim Healys Chutney Spoon

[Jazzy G]

Of course. It worked wonders for all those nonces and wrong 'uns at the BBC on the 70s and ű0s. Allegedly. 

Granted, following the MeToo and speaking out  movements women have been rightly empowered to speak out about these things, but it's still going to be a long time before we can overcome the stigma surrounding victims speaking out as well as the protected status these kinds of hight profile offenders have and have had for drcades. These things aren't going to magically change overnight, but hopefully this is another turning point and step in the right direction so people are able to voice these concerns in a safer environment. 

[DCW]

Fair play to Katherine Ryan. I never really liked her comedy or those panel shows, but she seems a very decent person for confronting Brand head on despite the potential damage to her career and litigation etc.

[johnnyboy]

30 minutes ago, Tim Healys Chutney Spoon said:

Agreed but if its as  'open secret' as has been made out that people knew things, the right thing would still have been to stand up for whats right and all those poor women (and I'd bet there's a lot more too that still haven't come forward) would have had a chance for justice much sooner. 

How?  What did people actually KNOW that was actionable?  Who KNEW something that was actionable?

[Briefcase]

Wouldn't surprise me if Brand (or his legal team) paid people off to say nothing (witnesses/entourage) or paid them off to stop them taking legal action. 

20 years ago it was a very laddish culture, 'get your tits out for the lads' and Brand being Brand used his comedy and his larger than life personality to get away with his behavior almost in plain sight, to counter that I am not surprised in the slightest that its taken the victims 20 plus years to bravely speak up.

To those saying 'oh it was laddish culture' back then have to understand that it goes hand in hand that because of that the victims wasn't able to speak out then either. 

Hoping many more are brave to step forward and Brand never sees the light of day ever again.

[TibBo]

1 hour ago, Briefcase said:

20 years ago it was a very laddish culture

1 hour ago, Briefcase said:

To those saying 'oh it was laddish culture' back then have to understand…

You tell ‘em mate

[RedTwoster]

13 hours ago, johnnyboy said:

How?  What did people actually KNOW that was actionable?  Who KNEW something that was actionable?

When it comes to police action, there's also another question - if you did know or strongly suspect that he had done something illegal and you're not the subject of that illegal act, is it ever right to report this on their behalf? I obviously don't mean if they ask you to - I mean, reporting it before the person in question feels ready to say anything themselves. It's not as straightforward a situation as many seem to be suggesting. While there's almost certainly a failing from higher ups when it comes to excusing or ignoring his behaviour, when it comes to 'justice' it becomes a bit more complicated. 

[Ironic Indie Lad]

THE MYSTERY CELEBRITY has apparently missed the deadline to appeal the decision to block them being named. Seemingly this expires at 12:30 today so could be all sorts of stuff coming out in the next few hours if I have understood this correctly (a huge if)