Russell Brand has spent his first night 'petrified' behind bars and admitted to his wife that he was terrified of going to prison on camera on the eve of his rape trial, the Daily Mail can reveal.
The disgraced comedian and former Hollywood star is in a south London jail after being convicted of raping a fan and carrying out three other sexual assaults.
Brand, 51, was said to be 'petrified' after being whisked to a high-security prison, where he was medically examined and strip-searched before being locked in a cell ahead of his sentencing on Monday.
After the steel door slammed shut behind him, Brand faced a night on a rock-hard bed in a cramped cell inside the stark Victorian jail. This morning, he would have been served cereal or porridge, fruit and a cup of tea in his 9.8ft by 6.7ft room.
But because of both his celebrity status and his conviction as a sex offender, prison officials are acutely aware he could become a target behind bars.
The father of three was also visibly shaken as the prospect of years in prison loomed over his trial, the Daily Mail can reveal.
His wife, Laura Gallacher, who left Southwark Crown Court in tears yesterday, read out a message from a supporter who told him that God would be with him in prison and that he would 'get through it'.
Brand, who said he entered court each day wearing the 'full armour of God', interrupted to admit he was scared in an episode of their Sunday Service show recorded on October 11, the day before the jury was selected.
Tapping Laura on the shoulder, he said: 'I don't like things where it's like you might have to go to prison.'
She replied: 'Yeah, I know, but that is just the nature of what a trial is.'
The moment Russell Brand told his wife he didn't like the thought of prison in a podcast recorded at the start of his trial. Laura replied that the potential of jail was a reality of being on trial
Russell Brand spent his first night behind bars last night after his conviction for rape and sexual assault. The fallen star was strip searched when he arrived and given a medical examination
Photographers clamour to get a picture of Brand as he is taken from court in a prison van and taken to prison where he is being held on remand ahead of his sentencing on Monday
Brand was allowed one phone call, believed to have been made to his wife Laura Gallacher who has been stood by her husband's side almost every day he arrived at court during his trial
Months earlier, Brand had been asked by Piers Morgan whether he had considered the 'reality' that he could end up in jail.
He replied: 'I will be with God wherever I am.'
That reality arrived yesterday when Brand spent his first night behind bars after being found guilty of raping one woman and sexually assaulting three others to satisfy what prosecutors described as his 'voracious' and violent lust.
Arriving at the prison at around 6pm, he was strip-searched and underwent a medical assessment, during which officers asked him to disclose any medication he was taking.
He was the brash, flamboyant and anarchic entertainer who went on to feature in Hollywood movies and marry one of the world's most famous pop stars.
Perhaps it's hard to imagine anyone less suited to being confined to a cold tiny prison cell - with a long-term future governed by highly-regimented and rigid institutional rules.
As the first 24 hours in prison carry a high risk of acute emotional distress or self-harm, staff conducted risk assessments as they would do with all new inmates.
Brand is also believed to have undergone body scans while fingerprints and mugshots were taken before his personal cash and belongings were removed.
His extravagant clothing including his falmboyant silk cravat worn around his neck as he arrived for every day of his trial at Southwark Crown Court was also taken from him and replaced by a grim prison-issue grey tracksuit.
One treasured possession Brand - who is sentenced on Monday - was allowed to keep was his bible. His incarceration will give Brand, a Christian convert, plenty of time to find meaningful passages in the text that had famously previously eluded him.
After being booked in, Brand was placed in a holding cell with other new arrivals as his cell in the jail's induction wing was prepared.
As Brand, previously a vegan and vegetarian, arrived after the evening meal had been served, a simple packed lunch-style dinner was placed in his cell.
He was also given a 'first-night pack' which consists of toiletries including a toothbrush and toothpaste and a food pack including cereal, tea, milk and sugar.
The packs also contain treats including Polos, juice sticks, and digestive biscuits.
Brand was also handed one toilet roll. He was given two pairs of prison-issue jogging bottoms plus t-shirts and sweatshirts and underwear.
He was allowed one three-minute phonecall behind bars – likley to have been made to wife Laura, 39, who supported him during his Southwark Crown Court trial.
But that will be his only call for a week as all phone numbers have to be approved and assigned a PIN.
Brand – understood to have whisked to either Wandsworth or Belmarsh in London – was monitored around the clock and blocked from mixing with other lags.
With facilities run on strict timetables, cell doors were locked shortly after he settled in.
Regular checks were carried out on Brand during the night in line with usual prison protocols.
The fallen star's new surroundings are basic - a bed consisting of a flimsy mattress on top of a fixed concrete slab, stainless steel toilet and wash basin and a bolted down table and stool.
It is a scene that couldn't be further removed from the star's now former home - a £6million six-bedroom riverside mansion in Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire.
Separated from his wife and three children his only immediate companion is his unknown cell mate - an experience that can be nothing short of bemusing if not terrifying.
Hardened criminals have confessed how losing their freedom for the first time had left them deeply distressed and disorientated.
Brand was interviewed by detectives in July last year where the allegrations of rape and sexual assault were put to him
Describing the experience the volunteer-run Doing Time website says: 'The first night tends to pass very slowly, as it has for countless prisoners before you.
'Every horror story you've ever heard about prison will probably run through your head, and if you've seen The Shawshank Redemption, you'll be bracing for the worst.
'It would be dishonest to pretend there's no violence or conflict in prison - there is, and not all of it makes the news.'
After his four-week trial at Southwark Crown Court, Brand, who had previously been on bail, seemed ill-prepared for what was to come - apparently arriving without an overnight suitcase he would have been advised to bring with him.
As the jury delivered their damning verdicts, Brand - who was accused of groping women and forcing them into sexual acts in allegations spanning 10 years from 1999 to 2009 - stood upright in the dock.
He closed his eyes but showed little other emotion as he was convicted of one rape and three counts sexual assaults and cleared of two counts of rape and one count of attempted indecent assault.
Flanked by security staff, the celebrity was taken from the dock in Courtroom Three and led downstairs to a holding cell below while his wife, Laura Gallacher, wept from the public gallery.
A request by the star's legal team to allow him to say goodbye to her and their three children before being taken into custody was denied.
He would have been given the opportunity later to make a brief phone call home - simply to ensure family arrangements had been put in place.
Brand will remain in his present jail until Monday morning when he will return to court to be sentenced. He has already been told he faces a long custodial sentence.
Sources told the Daily Mail, Brand's lawyers are considering all options and may seek to appeal the verdict on the grounds that he was not given a fair trial.
The star, who is already said to have spent £5000,000 on legal representatives, is said to be awaiting his sentence before he decides how to proceed.
It is also believed that Brand's lawyers are considering submitting requests to prison authorities for the star to be moved to a jail such as HMP Huntercombe, where tennis legend Boris Becker served time.
The jail is close to Brand's home although Huntercombe is exclusively designated for adult male foreign national offenders.
Brand's incarceration began in the bowels of the court building, where he spent two hours before being collected by HM Prison Service guards and escorted to a secure van and driven out via a side gate.
Brand kept his head bowed to avoid being pictured through a van window by a scrum of waiting photographers.
Upon arrival through the prison gates, he was taken to the reception area and officially processed, undergoing identity verification and security checks and having what little personal property he had on him removed and logged.
His smart grey and black pinstripe suit, waistcoat and high-heeled cowboy-style boots were bagged up and placed in storage with Brand being handed his drab,prison tracksuit.
The star's physical and mental health checks would have included substance misuse assessments and a suicide and self-harm risk screening before he was moved to the jail's segregation wing.
During his trial Brand and Laura continued to co-host a home-recorded video blog and podcast series titled Sunday Service with Laura, in which they frequently discussed their shared Christian faith, read from the Bible, and prayed together.
He has now lost all access to social media with mobile phones and laptops deemed contraband. Even the crucifix he wore around his neck and the rosary beads he clutched for comfort would have been taken off him to reduce the potential of him harming himself.
Brand was found guilty of raping a 21-year-old fan after meeting her at a 2009 stand-up show at the Hammersmith Apollo.
He was also found guilty of groping another MTV worker during a party at a Soho bar in 2004, but not guilty of going on to orally rape her in a toilet.
Jurors found Brand guilty of sexually assaulting a Capital Radio worker after meeting her in a corridor in 2005 and guilty of sexually assaulting a Channel 4 worker during a forced massage in 2009.
Brand is understood to have been whisked to either Wandsworth (above) or Belmarsh prisons
He was cleared of raping a woman he met at a cabaret show on the fringes of the 1999 Labour Party conference in Bournemouth and was found not guilty of trying to drag an MTV worker into a toilet to indecently assault her in 2001.
The judge, Mr Justice Bentham, told him: 'You've been convicted of a number of offences including rape. The consequence of that is inevitably a significant custodial term.'
A conviction of rape can carry a life sentence, with standard maximum determinate sentences often reaching up to 19 years depending on the severity and guidelines.
Sexual assault convictions, meanwhile, carry a maximum sentence of 10 years per count.
Even before his sentence, Brand's hours spent staring at four walls will no doubt give him more than enough time to contemplate how his fabulously rich lifestyle is already just a distant memory.
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