Russell Brand took the stand for the first time in his ongoing rape and sexual assault trial on Wednesday and revealed that no one else has agreed to testify on his behalf.
At London’s Southwark Crown Court, the prosecution has completed presenting its case and Brand’s defense team, led by Ian Winter, is now set to detail its arguments for the jury.
The prosecution ran the court through all of the charges against the TV host and comedian, also star of St. Trinian’s and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. He is accused of three counts of rape, three charges of sexual assault and one allegation of attempted indecent assault, with six women alleging offenses dating from 1999 to 2009. The final charge was reduced from indecent assault to attempted indecent assault by the judge, Justice Bennathan, on Tuesday afternoon.
Among the claims is a woman who says Brand raped her in a Bournemouth hotel room in 1999 following one of his comedy gigs. Another says he grabbed her breasts and pushed her into a toilet in a bar in Soho, where he orally raped her in 2004. A separate woman alleges Brand anally raped her at his home in Hampstead in 2009, after consensual vaginal sex. Brand vehemently denies any criminal wrongdoing.
According to Sky News coverage, there was a “significant shift” in the courtroom on Wednesday as Brand took the stand as the defense’s first witness. After taking his oath, his barrister began probing Brand on the “sea of change” brought about in his life after marrying U.S. pop superstar Katy Perry in 2010. “It did,” replied the defendant. “Staggering fame.”
Brand was asked about the documentary that prompted the police to first investigate him in 2023. Made by Channel 4’s Dispatches and followed by allegations in The Sunday Times, the program accused Brand of rape and assault. “It was devastating,” he told his barrister, who then asked: “Were you able to persuade a single person with relevant evidence to come to give evidence on your behalf?”
Brand replied: “I have not.” When Winter asked if anyone “would touch him with a bargepole,” Brand said, “No.” He added: “My entire life has been consumed by these allegations. I have devoted myself to these matters.”
Winter took Brand through various statements from the complainants, some of whom he remembers meeting and others whom he says he has no recollection of. Winter asked Brand, “Is that something that you normally do? Speak during sex?” His client replied, “Yes … I believe I would have been saying: ‘Am I doing this right, do you like this, is this OK?”
Brand said when asked for his opinion on consent: “Consent is a fundamental, essential and necessary, and in many ways more important than sex itself.”
He discussed the first complainant, saying he remembered meeting her at the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth in 1999. He told the court he found her “loquacious” and “interesting,” and when asked if there was any truth in her claim that Brand raped her that night in a hotel room, the defendant said: “No.”
The prosecution, cross-examining Brand, then suggested he “just didn’t care whether she was interested in having sex with you or not.” Brand refuted that and told them he cared “very much.” He added: “I know what ‘no’ means.”
The third complainant says Brand groped her breasts in a bar before pulling her to the toilets and forcing her to perform oral sex on him. He does remember meeting her, he told the court. He said a friend introduced him to the woman, telling him “something like, ‘There’s a bird here who really wants to meet you mate.’” Brand told the court that he would have said to this woman upon meeting her: “‘You’re really, really beautiful.’”
“Is there any question you just grabbed her breasts?” Winter said to Brand. “Absolutely not,” he replied, saying the act does not turn him on because it’s “disgusting behavior.”
He remembers speaking to the complainant for less than a minute before going to the bathroom to “fool around.” Winter said: “As far as you’re aware, is there any question that she did not consent to going into the cubicle with you?” Brand told him: “There’s absolutely no question.” Winter also asked: “Did your penis enter her mouth at all whilst in the cubicle?” His defendant said, “No.”
On the allegation that he anally raped another woman at his North London home in 2009, Brand said after a “memorable” sexual encounter he was “excited and enthusiastic” to see her again. The woman said they had consensual vaginal sex in his bedroom, which Brand recalls. When asked if he had then anally raped her, Brand said: “No.” He was asked if she told him to stop, to which he replied: “No.”
The trial could last up to six weeks.