Crimeupdated 1h ago3 min read
Russell Brand Stands Trial In Southwark Crown Court Accused Of Sexual Offences Against Six Women
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Brand faces seven charges at Southwark Crown Court, including three rape counts. A former flatmate testified that sex was a huge preoccupation for Brand.
Trial in Southwark Crown Court
Russell Brand, 51, stood trial in Southwark Crown Court accused of several sexual offences relating to six women over a 10-year period from 1999 to 2009, and he pleaded not guilty to all charges. The prosecution told the jury that Brand was “ruthless, he was calculated and manipulative, and the prosecution say, he was a sexual predator,” and it described offending that took place in a hotel room, workplaces, a toilet cubicle in a bar and at his home address. Riel Karmy-Jones KC told jurors that Brand’s “desire, strong desire for some form of sexual contact was indiscriminate and voracious,” and she said some women protested while others had no opportunity to protest or react.
The Guardian said the prosecution alleged Brand boasted about wanting to have sex with 5,000 women, and the court heard that Brand told a former friend “All you have to do is tell them what they need to hear.” The Hollywood Reporter said the prosecution opened by describing Brand as “ruthless and calculated” and said the six women “have never met each other, and who came forward independently of each other.”
Bournemouth allegation and photos
Andrew Dobson, a former flatmate of Russell Brand, testified in Bournemouth that “sex was a huge preoccupation” for Brand, and he said he recalled “a few nights” where “the pursuit of ultimately getting somebody in bed would be a preoccupation.”
Dobson told the court he described Brand as “very vibrant” and “very egotistical,” and he added that “erratic would maybe be a slightly better term.”
The court heard that Ms A, a woman given the pseudonym Ms A, claimed Brand raped her at a political conference in 1999, and the court played pictures she took of Brand in her hotel room.
Ms A told the court that she invited him to continue speaking in her hotel room and said, “I blame myself for inviting him back to my room … that was my office. That was my workspace,” adding, “He violated that space.”
Ms A told the detective in a video played to the court that Brand was “prancing around, I remember him prancing around being silly and asking me to take pictures of him,” before she said he pushed her onto the bed and raped her.
Toilets, denial, and jury
A witness told the defence that Brand tried to pull her into toilets, and she asked, “Why would you try to drag someone into a toilet unless you wanted to assault them?”
“Why would you try to drag someone into a toilet unless you wanted to assault them?”
The Sky News account said the defence suggested the documentary and subsequent media coverage in 2023 altered her memory, and the witness replied, “I knew it was wrong. [The documentary and subsequent media coverage] did not change my view of the situation.”
The Guardian said the prosecution alleged Brand offered to show a woman at MTV where the toilets were, and it described Brand asking her to “come in” and grabbing her forearm.
The Guardian also said the prosecution alleged Brand told another complainant “Oh come on, don’t be a spoilsport,” and it described a “desperate, wide-eyed look on his face” in the toilet incident.
The Hollywood Reporter said officials put journalists in an “overflow room” watching through video link, and it said Brand told journalists on Wednesday morning, “I feel blessed. I feel, of course, concerned, but hopeful that this process will lead to good outcomes for everybody — that is my prayer.”