Russell Brand Trial: Star Takes the Stand and Tells Court No One Will Touch Him “With a Bargepole”
Charges and allegations
The allegations include claims of rape in Bournemouth in 1999 and at Brand’s Hampstead home in 2009. Another woman alleges he grabbed her breasts, pushed her into a Soho bar toilet and orally raped her in 2004. The judge, Justice Bennathan, reduced the final charge from indecent assault to attempted indecent assault on Tuesday.
Brand begins his defense
After the prosecution completed its case, Brand’s defense team, led by Ian Winter, began presenting its arguments. Brand took the stand Wednesday as the defense’s first witness. Winter asked about the changes in Brand’s life after he married Katy Perry in 2010. Brand replied, “It did,” and described the change as “Staggering fame.”
Testimony on the investigation
Winter questioned Brand about the Channel 4 Dispatches documentary that prompted police to investigate him in 2023, followed by allegations in The Sunday Times. Brand called the experience “devastating.” Asked whether he had persuaded anyone with relevant evidence to testify for him, Brand replied, “I have not.” Winter then asked whether anyone would “touch him with a bargepole”; Brand answered, “No.” He said the allegations had consumed his life and that he had devoted himself to the matter.
Questions about consent
Winter asked Brand about statements from complainants, including people he said he remembered meeting and others he said he could not recall. Asked whether he normally spoke during sex, Brand said he believed he would ask, “Am I doing this right, do you like this, is this OK?” When asked his view of consent, Brand called it “fundamental, essential and necessary,” adding that in many ways it was more important than sex itself.
Key points
- Brand testified that he had not found anyone with relevant evidence to testify for his defense.
- He denies all charges involving six women and alleged offenses from 1999 to 2009.
- A judge reduced the final charge to attempted indecent assault on Tuesday.
- Brand described consent as essential and, in many ways, more important than sex.