Disgraced comedian Russell Brand has issued his first message from behind bars after being jailed for 10 and a half years for rape and sexual assault. His wife, Laura Gallacher, shared the message on Sunday, after the 51-year-old had served the first week of his sentence. He was found guilty earlier this month of raping one woman and sexually assaulting three others during his career.

Gallacher, the 39-year-old daughter of Ryder Cup winning golfer Bernard Gallacher, read the message aloud from a notebook during a new episode of Sunday Service, the weekly YouTube podcast she and Brand began earlier this year and continued recording throughout his trial. In it, Brand wrote that he is not guilty of the offences he was jailed for and that he is incarcerated in HMP Littlehey, which he described as the biggest sex offenders' prison in Europe. He said he had found the staff strong, kind and dedicated, and that he was in no position to judge his fellow prisoners. Gallacher became emotional as she read the closing line, asking supporters to back his wife and family.S1

According to The Sun on Sunday, Brand was moved from HMP Wandsworth to the category C prison HMP Littlehey on Friday, a move that has been widely reported in British media. The prison offers a range of extra-curricular activities for inmates, including yoga, choir and indoor bowls. Brand was sentenced to a 10-and-a-half-year term on Monday afternoon and is expected to serve two-thirds of it.S1S2

Gallacher said she intended to continue the work the couple had built through the Sunday Service community, saying the ambitions remained the same even though it was painful to carry on without her husband beside her. She added that Brand was okay and praying.S1