Convicted rapist Russell Brand has been secretly transferred from HMP Wandsworth to the Category C prison HMP Littlehey in Cambridgeshire.
The move comes just days after the 51-year-old was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on November 9 to a 10-year and six-month prison term for offences against four women committed between 2004 and 2009.
Brand arrived at the Cambridgeshire facility on Friday inside a secure transport vehicle operated by Serco, according to reports by The Sun on Sunday. The journey from Wandsworth covered approximately 90 miles, with Brand transported inside a self-contained compartment within the prison van. The 51-year-old was placed in a single-person cell on the prison’s E Wing.
“He was heard asking for blankets on his first night and he’s had extra officers looking after him since he arrived,” a prison source said, adding that Brand “has got his own cell and he’s not interacted with any of the other inmates yet.”
The facility houses approximately 1,200 male sex offenders and provides recreational amenities including yoga, football, indoor bowls, gym sessions, choir rehearsals, quizzes and origami. Littlehey features two gyms, two sports halls, and an artificial football pitch, operating as a training prison with a strong focus on education and extra-curricular activities where inmates get roughly three and a half hours of exercise weekly.
Before the transfer, Brand had been held in solitary segregation in a basement punishment block at Wandsworth for his own safety due to fears his profile and convictions would make him a target. Those 20 basement cells feature a steel toilet with no seat, a cardboard table, and a bed with a thin mattress, where occupants are let out once a day to shower and collect a hot meal.
“People will see Littlehey as Brand given a soft option. People would expect him to spend time in a jail such as Monster Mansion after the appalling things he did,” said Mick Neville, speaking to The NZ Herald.
Vanessa Frake criticized the decision to place him in a lower-security facility so quickly, telling The Sun on Sunday, “I am absolutely flabbergasted that he is in a Category C prison.” Frake added that she would have expected him to be placed in a Category B facility instead, pointing to the substantial length of his sentence.
Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Helen Whately stated during The Camilla Tominey Show on GB News that the Conservatives would likely ask questions in Parliament regarding the transfer decision, questioning how the individuals abused by Brand would feel about the development.
Laura Brand returned to the couple’s podcast on Sunday to address the situation, stating that she had spoken to her husband in custody and that he “is OK and is praying.”
Brand must serve two-thirds of his sentence before becoming eligible for release on licence, and he remains on the sex offenders’ register for life. Meanwhile, additional allegations involving six more women have emerged from an investigation by The Times and the Sunday Times, concerning claims of sexual misconduct and predatory behaviour dating back to the late 2000s.
Earlier coverage: Russell Brand Convicted of Rape and Sexual Assault