Editor’s note: This story contains details of alleged sexual offenses that some readers may find distressing.
Russell Brand has claimed that “consent is more important than sex itself” as he forcefully denied the rape charges against him during a trial in London.
Taking to the witness stand at Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday morning, the Forgetting Sarah Marshall star said his “entire life has been consumed by these allegations” since UK press reports about his conduct in 2023. Brand said he had “devoted” himself to attempting to get to the bottom of the accusations.
Wearing an open white shirt and blazer, Brand was called forward to the dock, said his name and forcefully denied all charges put to him by his barrister Ian Winter. He replied “no” to each charge loudly as he was asked. He said no one was willing to give evidence on his behalf. Deadline has been reporting daily from a live video feed of the courtroom since the trial began.
Standing up and facing the jury as he gave evidence, Brand told the court: “Consent is fundamental, essential, necessary, and in many ways more important than the sex itself.”
Brand On Alleged 1999 Rape
Brand was asked about Complainant 1 (C1), who alleged that she was raped by the comedian after meeting him on the fringes of the Labour Party Conference in Bournemouth in 1999. The woman was in her twenties at the time of the alleged incident. She, along with the other five complainants, has a lifelong right to anonymity.
After attending a cabaret event in which Brand was performing, the pair returned to C1’s hotel room. “I hoped there was at least the possibility of sex,” Brand told the jury. Brand said he was attracted to C1: “She was vivacious, vital, loquacious, unusual.”
C1 claimed Brand pushed her on the bed, pulled down her trousers and underwear, and proceeded to rape her. The woman repeatedly told police that she remembered his weight on her and that he attempted to put his fingers in her mouth. C1 alleged that he was “pushing and pushing” until he ejaculated. “I know I said, ‘No,’” she told police.
Brand told a different story. He remembered “fooling around” and then having “sex with a condom.” Brand claimed that he spoke to C1 during intercourse, asking her “all the things that elicit approval,” including if she was enjoying the encounter. Brand said it “wasn’t a familiar situation” for himself because he could not recall being with an older woman before.
Brand Says Alleged Anal Rape Victim Was “Coquettish”
Winter turned to Complainant 5 (C5), who alleged that she was anally raped by Brand in 2009 at his home in Hampstead, north London, after first meeting him backstage at a Hammersmith Apollo stand-up gig.
C5 admitted having a consensual sexual encounter with Brand and another woman in his dressing room after the Hammersmith Apollo gig, during which she gave the comedian oral sex. Brand said he recalled the encounter in “startling detail” because C5 “put her tongue in my anus.”
They met days later at his home in Hampstead. Both accept they had consensual vaginal sex with a condom. C5 then accused Brand of anally raping her. C5 alleged Brand said to her, “I want you to feel my cum,” at which point he ejaculated inside her anus and she realized he had removed his condom. Multiple witnesses recalled C5 being in physical pain and “extremely distressed” after the incident.
Brand admitted “talking dirty” to C5 and saying words to the effect of, “I wanna cum in you, I wanna cum in your ass.” He recalled C5 being “coquettish” and that she consented to anal sex. Brand said he took steps to lubricate C5 because anal sex would have been “painful” otherwise. “She consented to continuing sexual activity without a condom,” Brand said.
The Despicable Me actor told the court that he saved C5’s number in his phone with the initial “T,” which he said was an abbreviation for “tart,” and “AP,” meaning “anal play.” The number also included “**,” which Brand said meant: “Never forget this individual — this was a memorable encounter.” Riel Karmy-Jones, the prosecution barrister, accused Brand of retrofitting his definitions to fit his evidence. Karmy-Jones alleged that “AP” could just as easily stand for “after party.”
Brand Denies Alleged 2004 Oral Rape
Brand faced questions on Complainant C3 (C3), who alleges he orally raped her in the toilet of a London bar at the birthday party of a TV producer. The court heard a police interview from C3 last week alleging Brand “literally just grabbed my boobs” and dragged her into the toilet before forcing his penis into her mouth and subsequently ejaculating.
According to Brand today, he initially had no recollection of encountering C3 before he returned to the bar with his solicitors after the allegation was put to him and meeting C3 came back to him.
However, Brand firmly denied the allegation, saying he arrived at the party and was told by the TV producer, “There’s a bird here who really wants to meet you mate.”
He described C3 as being “wide eyed, enthusiastic and flirty” and denied grabbing her breast, but instead said they both decided to go to the toilet cubicle together.
After some “kissing, touching and fooling around” and while it’s “possible” he “would have taken my penis out of my trousers,” Brand said “the environment was unsuitable for me to meet the goal I went in there with,” which would have been achieving an orgasm.
He said he left the bar with C3 and went to a different London bar, at which point they lost each other and he “met some attractive women specifically from a TV channel called Babestation.”
Barred From Visiting Son In Hospital
After the Channel 4 documentary about the allegations was aired in 2023, Brand told the court he was not allowed to visit his son, who was receiving open-heart surgery in a London hospital.
Brand claimed he was told, “due to the material that had been published in the public eye, they had to bar my attendance and presence.” “They were unclear about what particular reason there was, but that was the reason they gave to my wife Laura and I,” he told the court. Brand’s wife Laura Gallagher attended court.
Brand said he did not call Channel 4’s Russell Brand: In Plain Sight a “documentary.” Pointedly, he said, “I call it a TV show,” when answering questions from his barrister.
Brand faces three charges of rape, three counts of sexual assault and now one of attempted indecent assault, reduced from indecent assault, based on allegations made by six women. His team has today started setting out its defense.
The prosecution wrapped this morning with a final piece of evidence concerning a conversation between one of the complainants and a journalist for The Sunday Times, which broke news of the Brand allegations alongside Channel 4.
On Tuesday, a pre-prepared statement that Brand made to police when he was interviewed between 2023 and 2025 was read to the court in which Brand said he “had sexual encounters in countless locations and scenarios, often with people I had just met,” but firmly denied ever having non-consensual sex.
The trial continues.