Labour's deputy leader Lucy Powell has said the women who gave evidence against Russell Brand were treated in a "shocking and depressing" way during his rape and sexual assault trial, and has called for more steps to safeguard complainants in court.

Ms Powell, who is also Education Secretary, was speaking after Brand, 51, was jailed for ten and a half years at Southwark Crown Court on Monday for raping one woman and sexually assaulting three others between 2004 and 2009.

She said she had been shocked by parts of the trial, in which the defence questioned the women about why they had not resisted, screamed or tried to leave, and described the experience as one she thought the courts had moved beyond.

What Powell said

Speaking to BBC Radio 4, Ms Powell said: "I was shocked and depressed, quite honestly, as I'm sure many, many others were, to hear of some of that cross-examination and the way that these women were treated in this trial. I think we all thought that that era was long behind us. Clearly, more steps need to be taken in this regard."

She made the same point on LBC radio, saying she had found reading some of the proceedings deeply depressing and that she had thought the legal system had long moved past that sort of culture.

Ms Powell praised the sentencing remarks of Mr Justice Bennathan, who told the court that what a woman wears, where she goes or how much she has drunk makes no difference to her right to give or withhold consent. Acting without consent, the judge said, is a sexual offence, "plain and simple".

The cross-examination at the centre of the row

Brand's barrister, Ian Winter KC, suggested during the four-week trial that Brand must be innocent because none of the women had resisted, screamed or even tried to leave. He also described the sexual assault of a 21-year-old woman as a brief and momentary lapse in which Brand had not respected her consent.

In his submissions at sentencing, Mr Winter argued that the rape should only be "regarded as a man who went too far" and that the victims were "not particularly vulnerable at all". He also argued that Brand's crimes were a consequence of his fame at the time.

The judge criticised the way the case had been conducted on Brand's instructions, saying the women had been put through extra suffering. He described Brand as a "sexual predator" who had shown "staggering arrogance" and a casual disregard for his victims' consent.

Mr Winter has since referred himself to the Bar Standards Board, the regulator for barristers in England and Wales, after confronting Sunday Times journalist Rosamund Urwin outside court following the verdicts. Ms Urwin's investigation, with colleagues at The Times and Channel 4, helped bring Brand's accusers forward in 2023.

Powell urges women to come forward

Speaking to Sky News, Ms Powell urged women to report sexual misconduct, saying: "What I would say to women now, off the back of that, is do come forward when these things happen to you. You will be supported. You will be believed. You will be taken seriously."

She said that if such a culture had existed 15 or 20 years ago, Brand would have been "stopped in his tracks sooner" and there would have been fewer victims.

Ms Powell also addressed her own role in arranging a 2015 interview between former Labour leader Ed Miliband and Brand, when she was the party's campaign chief. She said she regretted the meeting and that, had anyone had any sense Brand was someone who committed such crimes, "of course nobody would have gone ahead with the interview".

She said Brand had approached Labour first, and that nobody involved had understood at the time what is now known about him.

What happens next

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said he will look at how rape cases are conducted in court after Brand's conviction, to prevent women feeling as though they are the ones on trial. He said he would study Brand's case "in great detail" and refused to rule out changes to the law.

Brand will serve two-thirds of his sentence before being released on licence, and will be on the sex offenders' register for life. The Metropolitan Police said on Tuesday it was assessing new information from people who had come forward during and since the trial, and prosecutors are already considering charges over two further alleged rapes.