Russell Brand's trial at Southwark Crown Court has heard that he saved an alleged victim's name in his phone as "anal play tart". The comedian denies three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one charge of indecent assault.
During the investigation, Brand gave his iPhone 5 to the police. The phone was sent to a forensic telephone company where "thousands" of contacts were found, said barrister Polly Dyer upon concluding the defence's case with a few "agreed facts".
Contact details revealed in court
In March 2026, within the contacts on the phone, a match was found for complainant five, saved under: "T [name of complainant] AP **". The court heard on Thursday that T stood for "tart" to signify that it was a casual sexual encounter, AP stood for "anal play" and ** meant it was an interaction he didn't want to forget.
Brand claimed the two asterisks meant: "Never, ever forget this individual, this is a memorable encounter." The number was confirmed to be complainant five's mobile number.
Defence case concluded
The court was further told that Brand pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis on April 20, 1995, and received a fine. The jury was told he has no other convictions.
For the defence, barrister Polly Dyer told jurors: "Mr Brand pleaded guilty to one charge of possessing cannabis on 20 April 1995. He received a fine. He has no other convictions, cautions, reprimands or warnings."
Concluding, she added: "That's the case of Russell Brand."
Judge's instructions to the jury
The judge told the jury: "That is the end of all the evidence you will hear." Judge Bennathan proceeded to tell the jury the law they must follow and gave jurors a step-by-step route through the questions they need to answer to reach their verdicts on each charge.
The court was told that the alleged offences are said to have taken place between 27 and 17 years ago. Judge Bennathan added jurors must not assume the delay in making complaints to the police makes the allegation untrue. He said: "All of the allegations to police were delayed by many years. On the delay in making the complaints to the police, you must not assume that was because they are untrue. The fact that a complaint is made late does not make the allegation untrue, just as a complaint is not necessarily true just because it was made immediately."
He then told them Russell Brand has a "good character", despite his 30-year-old cannabis possession conviction, which they have been instructed to ignore. The judge pointed out evidence at the trial from Brand's ex-girlfriends and his wife Laura, who all talked of positive attributes and said he sought their consent during sex. His wife also pointed to his "struggle to be monogamous".
The judge said: "His effective good character is not a defence to the charges he faces, but you should take it into account in two ways. First, a person who has no significant previous convictions is more likely to be truthful, so when you examine the defendant's account in evidence you should keep that in mind. Second, you should bear in mind that someone who has never been in serious trouble is less likely to commit a serious offence than someone who has been in trouble before."
The trial continues.
