{"id":930358,"date":"2026-10-12T15:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T15:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/930358\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T15:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T15:02:12","slug":"russell-brands-rape-trial-starts-in-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/930358\/","title":{"rendered":"Russell Brand’s Rape Trial Starts in London"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tRussell Brand<\/a> has arrived to London\u2019s Southwark Crown Court for the start of his criminal trial.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe former actor and comedian has been charged with three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe charges were brought by the U.K.\u2019s Crown Prosecution Service (similar to a D.A.) in April and December last year.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe charges from April are said to have occurred between 1999 and 2005 and involve four women. The additional charges brought in December<\/a> relate to two further women and are said to have taken place in 2009.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe charges were brought following an investigation by the Metropolitan Police. Brand has pleaded not guilty<\/a> to all the charges.<\/p>\n

\n\tBrand arrived to court on Monday wearing a grey suit and sunglasses. He was accompanied by his wife, Laura Gallacher, whom he married in 2017. The trial, the outcome of which will be decided by 12 jurors, could last up to two months. Brand is on bail<\/a> throughout.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe opening day of the trial is expected to deal with jury selection, with opening arguments from both the prosecution and defense tentatively scheduled for Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the mid-2000s, Brand was best known as a comedian and actor, presenting shows such as \u201cBig Brother\u2019s Big Mouth\u201d and starring in films such as \u201cGet Him to the Greek\u201d and \u201cForgetting Sarah Marshall.\u201d He has since pivoted to podcasting and influencing online.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 2023, Brand was the subject of a joint investigation by The Sunday Times of London and Channel 4 documentary \u201cDispatches,\u201d which published allegations against him<\/a> of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse. Brand strongly denied the allegations.<\/p>\n

\n\tFollowing the investigation, the Metropolitan Police began their own investigation, resulting in the charges brought last year.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe carefully reviewed the evidence after a police investigation into allegations made following the broadcast of a Channel 4, Sunday Times and Times investigation in September 2023,\u201d the CPS\u2019s chief crown prosecutor Jaswant Narwal said at the time the first charges were brought. \u201cWe have concluded that Russell Brand should be charged with offences including rape, sexual assault and indecent assault.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Crown Prosecution Service reminds everyone that criminal proceedings are active, and the defendant has the right to a fair trial.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russell Brand has arrived to London\u2019s Southwark Crown Court for the start of his criminal trial. The former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":930359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,75,233517],"class_list":["post-930358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-russell-brand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=930358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/930359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=930358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=930358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=930358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}