The club has taken down references to the lifelong supporter after his conviction for rape and sexual assault. Publishers have also withdrawn his books.
West Ham United have removed references to Russell Brand from their website after the comedian and actor was jailed for 10 and a half years at Southwark Crown Court on Monday. Brand, 51, a prominent Hammers fan who often featured on the club’s official channels, was found guilty last week of raping one woman and sexually assaulting three others. The club appears to have distanced itself from him since the verdicts. The Metropolitan Police said its investigation into further allegations “remains ongoing”.
References taken down
Among the material removed from the website is a 2023 article published after West Ham’s Conference League triumph. It described Brand as “a globally recognised Hammers fan” who documented himself watching the game live.
Brand grew up in east London and inherited his support for the club from his father. He was frequently given VIP access and carried out post-match interviews in which he kissed former managers Sam Allardyce and Slaven Bilic. In a February 2009 interview with FourFourTwo, he spoke of his admiration for former club captain Mark Noble, saying he got “tongue-tied” when the player came in.
Books withdrawn
The change comes after publishers confirmed they had pulled his books from sale. Hodder & Stoughton, which published his best-selling memoir My Booky Wook, is one of several to have withdrawn his titles. Pan Macmillan said it was in the process of doing the same.
My Booky Wook was the UK’s Christmas number one best-seller in 2007. It returned to the spotlight during the trial, when jurors were shown extracts in which Brand boasted about his sexual exploits and his attitudes towards women. Prosecutors argued that the passages supported the accounts of several of his accusers. In one extract read to the jury, Brand said he would not have stopped until he got his “birthright orgasm”.
The verdicts
After the jury deliberated for eight and a half hours, Brand was found guilty on Thursday of raping a 21-year-old fan he met after a 2009 stand-up show at the Hammersmith Apollo. He was also convicted of the following offences:
- groping an MTV worker at a party in a Soho bar in 2004;
- sexually assaulting a Capital Radio worker after meeting her in a corridor in 2005; and
- sexually assaulting a Channel 4 worker during a forced massage in 2009.
He was cleared of orally raping the MTV worker in a toilet at the Soho party, and of raping a woman he met at a cabaret show on the fringes of the 1999 Labour Party conference in Bournemouth. He was also found not guilty of trying to drag an MTV worker into a toilet to indecently assault her in 2001. His four-week trial ended last Thursday.
The judge told him: “You’ve been convicted of a number of offences including rape. The consequence of that is inevitably a significant custodial term.”
Sentencing and further allegations
A rape conviction can carry a life sentence. Standard maximum determinate sentences often reach up to 19 years, depending on the severity of the offence and the sentencing guidelines. A conviction for sexual assault carries a maximum of 10 years per count.
Brand faces further rape allegations from two women and has already been questioned by officers about the complaints. The Metropolitan Police has said its investigation continues.
