BySima Kotecha

Senior UK correspondent

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, three charges of sexual assault. He was found not guilty of two counts of rape and 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.

"Hello, mate!" came his cheery greeting. It was a bizarre moment given the seriousness of his situation. I continued typing.

In another slightly surreal moment a black people carrier pulled up outside the court on the day the trial began.

The door to the car slid open and out stepped a man who looked just like Brand - but it wasn't him.

The mystery man attracted a few shouted questions before Brand stepped out of the car behind him.

The man was present on most days of the trial and wandered around after Brand, attracting double-takes and much comment, with no clarity about who he actually was.

Brand now positions himself as a Christian influencer and has been public about his faith.

It was on display during his trial via the crucifixes of varying sizes that he wore. One day, I saw him handling what looked like prayer beads.

The court room itself was typical. The judge faced Brand, who sat in a long glass box with a door at one end, which was mostly left open, giving him a view of his wife.

I was directly behind him - no more than a metre and a half away in the press seats.

Between Brand and the judge, sat two sets of lawyers with the jury sitting immediately to the right of the judge.

Day after day we listened to harrowing and graphic accounts of rape and sexual abuse of some of the worst kinds imaginable.

The courage of the women who told their stories in court, who spoke behind a screen, was remarkable.

The tears flowed, their nerves evident in their voices. The way they told their stories was deeply moving.

In the dock Brand's statue-like demeanour was broken only occasionally, when, during some of the evidence, he closed his eyes for several seconds, perhaps in silent prayer or meditation. There was no fidgeting or movement. He didn't flinch.

He maintained his composure even during some of the most harrowing evidence, when one of the victims told the court how blood and faeces had been left on Brand's bed sheets after he had raped her at his house.

During the testimony, Brand let out a sigh and looked at the ceiling with his eyes closed.

Speculation grew about whether Brand would give evidence - defendants can choose whether to take to the stand in their trials. It became a daily talking point among the reporters.

Giving evidence yourself can be a double-edged sword; a chance to vigorously defend one's innocence on the one hand, balanced by the risk of being torn apart by the prosecution barrister.

But it finally happened. Brand took to the witness box on day 10 of the trial. His testimony was perhaps unsurprising - after all, nobody apart from his wife had been prepared to speak up for him in court as part of the defence's case.

It was a nervous beginning. Brand entered the witness box wearing a dark suit and a white open- necked shirt. In an unusually loud voice he answered "no" to each of the allegations that were put to him.

He had taken his bible oath loudly too and stood, bolt upright with hands clasped behind his back.

I watched him like a hawk. This was a TV personality who was very much part of my youth, but now being interrogated with his liberty on the line.

His nerves seemed to visibly ease, so much so that at one point he put his hands in his pockets. It was noticeable that after an adjournment, he was back in his ramrod style stance with hands out of his pockets, behind his back.

The trial had hinged on the issue of consent. During his testimony he stated that "consent is fundamental, essential, necessary and indeed in many ways more important than sex itself".

But many of his answers were terse, followed sometimes by silences. This led the prosecution to suggest it had been because he was finding the questions difficult to answer.

There were flashes of irritability. "Do you accept you were desperate for it [sex] and sometimes couldn't function without it?" he was asked. "No", he replied, displaying an apparent frustration at the repetitive nature of the questioning.

There were moments of bizarre levity too. When his wife, Laura, gave evidence in his defence, he laughed out loud from the dock when she spoke about them having plenty of friends and being grateful for them. It was the only moment throughout the trial where Brand had shown any visible emotion.

His wife attended court with him every day - soberly dressed, she sometimes took notes when the complainants were giving evidence.

Her support for her husband was visible - holding his hand as they walked in, smiling at him while he was in the dock for hours at a time.

Brand's minder often sat next to her in the public benches, and her father, former Ryder Cup-winning golfer Bernard Gallacher sat with her in the gallery during the defence closing. Brand's father, Ron, also attended regularly, exchanging polite chat with some of the media.

At 51 years of age, Brand looked gaunt and visibly thinner as the trial neared its end, he seemed to have lost weight as the days went on. Other reporters said the same. We discussed whether signs of confidence he showed at the start had slowly ebbed away.

The verdicts came on Thursday after the jury had been deliberating for eight hours and 30 minutes.

Brand, who stood upright in the dock, showed limited emotion as the verdicts were read out.

"Sit down Mr Brand," the judge told him after the verdicts were delivered.

"On what happens next... obviously a custodial sentence of some length will result."

Brand's appearance in court was an extraordinary fall from grace. A man hailed as a multi-media celebrity, a self-confessed ladies' man too, but now a convicted rapist in custody.