Russell Brand’s trial at Southwark crown court began with widespread media coverage on 12 October. The former comedian and presenter faces three charges of rape, three of sexual assault and one of attempted indecent assault against six women, in allegations spanning 10 years from 1999. He denies all the charges. Here are five things we learned in the third week of his trial.
Brand, 51, who was in the witness box for four hours on Wednesday, told the jury the criminal case had been a “deeply traumatic episode” in his life.
He blamed his public fall from grace on 2023 media reports, including a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary, about his alleged sexual misconduct. He said he had achieved “staggering fame” after his marriage to the US pop star Katy Perry but that now nobody would “touch [him] with a bargepole”.
The prosecutor, Riel Karmy-Jones KC, suggested he hadn’t been “abandoned” by everyone he knows, and noted he had millions of followers online. “This is not the case of poor Mr Brand being taken apart by the media,” she said.
Brand denied her suggestion that consent had not been “uppermost” in his mind between 1999 and 2009, telling the court: “Consent is absolutely non-negotiable.” He said he was “innocent” of all the charges and added: “Consent is fundamental, essential, necessary and, indeed, in many ways more important than sex itself.”
Brand admitted he was wrong to have used his fame and success to “facilitate” sexual activity with women. “I think I was in a position of fame, a successful person who was admired, and I misused that commodity very selfishly,” he said.
Brand’s wife, Laura, began her evidence on Thursday by confirming she is the TV presenter Kirsty Gallacher’s sister, and that they are the daughters of the Ryder Cup-winning golfer Bernard Gallacher.
She told the court she and Brand fell in love after meeting in 2006 but that the comedian had cheated on her early in their relationship.
“I wasn’t interested in having a relationship with him if he was sleeping with other people. I was invested, we both had told each other we loved each other, but it was clear it was difficult for him to be monogamous,” Laura Brand said.
They broke up in February 2007 but restarted their relationship in 2015 and married two years later. Laura Brand insisted he was a “wonderful father” and an “ amazingly attentive husband ”. “We have a very frank, honest and clear relationship and marriage,” she said.
During cross-examination by Karmy-Jones, Laura agreed that Brand has a channel on the video-sharing platform Rumble, presents at political conferences and was baptised in early 2024 after the sexual misconduct allegations emerged.
Brand has remained still during the trial, but he was animated during his wife’s evidence, and could be seen smiling and laughing at times. He appeared to be mouthing words towards her as she talked about his 2024 baptism and nodding when she spoke of their friendship.
He also showed more emotion during his evidence. With his hands behind his back, he began by giving confident answers in a booming voice to his barrister, Ian Winter KC. “Mr Brand, that is nice and loud,” the judge, Mr Justice Bennathan, said. Brand also used florid language such as “badinage”, “loquacious” and “coquettishness”.
But there was a marked shift in the comedian’s demeanour during cross-examination, which was punctuated with pauses and long spells of silence. There was a long pause after the prosecution’s first question: “You blame Dispatches, don’t you?”, and again when Karmy-Jones repeated the question.
Brand was confronted with extracts from his 2007 book, My Booky Wook, and his comments in media appearances.
The first alleged rape victim had told the court she believed Brand was gay and effeminate when they first met at a 1999 Labour party conference fringe event, leading to her agreeing for him to come to her hotel room.
The prosecutor pointed out that in his book, Brand used a picture of himself as a seven-year-old and wrote the caption: “This is the exact moment when I decided to act gay to attract girls. It took 15 years to produce results.”
Karmy-Jones read out another in which Brand wrote: “My egotism and the single-mindedness with which I pursued potentially sexual conquests could often make me uneasy company.”
In another he set out: “Now if I want something – whether it’s a job or a woman – I will determinedly, resolutely, remove anything that’s in the way, until I possess the object of my desire.”
In the book, Brand referred to himself as a “fervid, febrile mass of sexual energy” towards the end of sex, adding: “I’ll do anything. I’m demonically sexy.”
The prosecutor gave her closing speech on Friday, telling jurors that the six women who had come forward to accuse Brand did not know one another and had nothing to gain.
“There is no benefit to them, apart from perhaps some closure by coming before you and telling you their accounts of what happened to them so long ago,” Karmy-Jones told the jury.
“What’s happened, we suggest, is these women have realised they’re not alone and they’ve bravely come before you to tell you the truth. The truth of what happened to them so many years ago. The truth they have lived with, which in some cases has haunted them for years.”
Brand’s barrister is expected to make his closing speech when the trial resumes on Monday.
