{"id":955574,"date":"2026-11-02T14:14:12","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T14:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/955574\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T14:14:12","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T14:14:12","slug":"sexual-misconduct-allegations-against-brand-poisoned-the-wells-court-told","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/955574\/","title":{"rendered":"Sexual misconduct allegations against Brand \u2018poisoned the wells\u2019, court told"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brand\u2019s barrister Ian Winter KC, in his closing speech at Southwark Crown Court on Monday, began by reciting an 1864 quote from philosopher John Henry Newman.<\/p>\n

Quoting it, he said: \u201cWhat I insist upon here, now that I am bringing this portion of my discussion to a close, is this unmanly attempt of his, in his concluding pages, to cut the ground from under my feet \u2026 this I call poisoning the wells.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that 2023 reporting of sexual misconduct allegations in a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary and Times and Sunday Times stories had \u201cpoisoned the well of justice\u201d in Brand\u2019s case by prompting the women to come forward with accusations afterwards.<\/p>\n

He told jurors: \u201cThey poisoned the wells in the hope and intention that other people come forward and make allegations against him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RussellRussell Brand arrives at Southwark Crown Court in London (Ben Whitley\/PA)<\/p>\n

Brand denies three charges of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one count of attempted indecent assault against six women, in allegations spanning 10 years from 1999.<\/p>\n

Mr Winter said there is a \u201ccurious feature\u201d to the evidence from the complainants, adding: \u201cThey have all given evidence that Mr Brand\u2019s behaviour was normal either during and or after the incidents.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThat, we suggest, is something that simply cannot have occurred if he is guilty.\u201d<\/p>\n

The barrister said the fact he behaved normally showed Brand believed they had consented.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cHe couldn\u2019t have been behaving normally if he knew they were not.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe obviously genuinely believed that they were consenting because that\u2019s the only thing that would explain why his behaviour was normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The barrister added that there is \u201cno evidence he is some sort of psychopath who rapes people and thinks it\u2019s normal\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Winter said the complainants did not make the \u201cindependent decision\u201d to speak out.<\/p>\n

The barrister added: \u201cLiving a highly promiscuous life is entirely lawful, however morally distasteful you may find it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThe question for you is can you possibly be sure in this case that out of the many, many women who voluntarily had sex with Mr Brand, he raped just three of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Winter said the 2023 allegations against Brand had had a \u201ctruly devastating effect\u201d on him, reminding jurors of the defendant\u2019s recounting of being blocked from visiting his baby son when he was having open heart surgery at Great Ormond Street Hospital.<\/p>\n

\"RussellRussell Brand faces three charges of rape, indecent assault and three counts of sexual assault, relating to six women (Ben Whitley\/PA)<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThat tells you the extent to which public opinion has been perverted and corrupted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of the allegations, he said the women \u201cthink it now\u201d, but does not \u201creflect what they were actually thinking back then\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThat is the precise consequence of the poisoning of the well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brand respects it when a woman says no and sought \u201capprobation and adoration\u201d from women, Mr Winter said.<\/p>\n

He told jurors: \u201cHe respects it when a women says no so that makes him someone who is not a rapist.\u201d<\/p>\n

The barrister said: \u201cHe was seeking the approval in the sex, it\u2019s the approval, it\u2019s the \u2018yes I will have sex with you\u2019 and that\u2019s what he said in his evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Winter referred to Brand\u2019s evidence during which he said that consent is more important than the sex itself.<\/p>\n

The barrister told jurors: \u201cWhat matters is he (Brand) had an immense amount of sex and none of it was unlawful.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cDisgusting, distasteful, immoral, who cares?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s irrelevant to your consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Winter put to jurors: \u201cWhy is it that only three rapes in 10 years?\u201d<\/p>\n

The barrister also pointed to the evidence of Mr Brand\u2019s wife, adding: \u201cShe fell in love with that man in full knowledge of what he was doing.<\/p>\n

\"BernardRyder Cup-winning golfer Bernard Gallacher accompanied his daughter and Brand (Ben Whitley\/PA)<\/p>\n

\u201cShe married him, she bore him three children.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that she would not have done so if Brand was \u201cguilty as charged\u201d.<\/p>\n

The prosecution reached for Brand\u2019s 2007 memoir My Booky Wook in a \u201cbid of desperation\u201d, Mr Winter said.<\/p>\n

He told jurors: \u201cWe suggest in the greatest respect that in a bid of desperation, the prosecution reached for Mr Brand\u2019s book.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Winter said that Brand wrote a \u201cfunny book\u201d which \u201ccontained jokes\u201d.<\/p>\n

He referred to a passage from the book in which the defendant wrote \u201cThis is the exact moment when I decided to act gay to attract girls\u201d next to a young picture of himself.<\/p>\n

The barrister added: \u201cIt was so obviously a joke\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cThe joke is that it didn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brand was accompanied by his wife Laura Gallacher as he arrived at the central London court on Monday morning.<\/p>\n

Also with them was Gallacher\u2019s father, Ryder Cup-winning golfer Bernard Gallacher, 77, who put his hand on his daughter\u2019s back as they exited a silver Mercedes and walked towards the steps.<\/p>\n

The trial continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brand\u2019s barrister Ian Winter KC, in his closing speech at Southwark Crown Court on Monday, began by reciting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":955575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":["post-955574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955574","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=955574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/955575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=955574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=955574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=955574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}