Jurors in the Russell Brand rape trial are expected to retire to consider their verdicts as the three-week case at Southwark Crown Court draws to a close. Brand, 51, faces seven charges, including rape, sexual assault, and indecent assault, and denies all the alleged crimes.
During the trial, his alleged victims described how Brand switched suddenly after appearing charming, forced them into sexual activity in a toilet, a hotel room, workplace corridors, and his bedroom, and acted as if nothing had happened afterwards. Here are ten key moments from the trial.
Prosecution's opening statement
On the opening day, the prosecution labelled Brand a “ruthless, calculated and manipulative” predator who raped and groped women to satisfy his sexual appetite. The court heard that Brand was “obsessed” with sex and treated women as a “means to an end”, and that he was “child-like in his expectation that his every desire should be met”.
Prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones KC said Brand used humour and his “charm” in the constant pursuit of sex. She added: “Regardless of who they were and what they said or did, the defendant was not deterred.”
Alleged rape at Labour conference
The court heard that Brand turned into a “monster” when he allegedly stripped naked and raped a woman in a hotel room at the Labour Party conference. Brand denies forcing himself on the woman after meeting her at a cabaret show at the 1999 political event in Bournemouth.
The woman broke down in tears in the witness box as she recalled feeling “shame” and being “dirty” in the aftermath. She told the court: “I did not want sex from him… I couldn’t fight back.” She said Brand was “camp, friendly and effeminate” when they chatted after his cabaret show, but he turned “monster-like” after she invited him to her hotel room.
Brand's comments outside court
On October 28, Brand told reporters that “today is the day for truth and justice” as he arrived at Southwark Crown Court. He held hands with wife Laura Gallacher as he exited a black vehicle and approached the central London court.
Asked if he wanted to say anything, he said: “Due to the circumstances of the day I think it would be inappropriate for me to say anything other than I’m very grateful that today is the day for truth and justice.” He added that “we are blessed that as of yet we have a system that can accommodate such things”.
No friends to give evidence
During the trial, Brand told jurors that he could not get any friends or former colleagues to give evidence in his defence, in the wake of being publicly accused of offences against women three years ago. His barrister, Ian Winter KC, asked Brand to spell out the effects on his friends and colleagues of being accused in reporting by the Sunday Times, The Times, and a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary in September 2023.
Brand replied: “It was devastating.” Mr Winter asked: “Were you able to persuade a single person with relevant evidence to come to give evidence on your behalf?” Brand replied: “I have not.” The barrister continued: “Would they touch you with a barge pole?”, and Brand replied: “No.”
Brand also said he was blocked from entering Great Ormond Street Hospital to be with his sick baby son. “The reason given by Great Ormond Street Hospital when my son was receiving open heart surgery and subsequent treatment was due to the material published,” he said.
Denial of goal to bed 5,000 women
Brand told the court he had an obsession with sex as a younger man, but denied setting himself a “goal” to sleep with 5,000 women. He insisted that he has never forced himself on a woman, telling jurors consent is “non-negotiable” and “more important than sex itself”.
Mark Pinheiro, a former friend of Brand, had told the trial about the comedian’s techniques for “pulling” women and allegedly revealed an ambition to sleep with 5,000 women. Prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones KC asked: “Is it a goal you may have had?” Brand replied: “I don’t agree, I don’t recall the conversation you are referring to.”
He admitted to being “obsessed” with sex in his younger years but denied the extent of the impact on his life. Ms Karmy-Jones asked him: “Do you accept that you were desperate for it and sometimes couldn’t function without it?” “No,” Brand said.
Turning to Mr Pinheiro’s suggestion he wanted to sleep with 5,000 women, he said: “While I don’t remember, it’s entirely possible it’s the kind of badinage I would have engaged in when I was 24.” He added that it would have been a “joke” if he had told Mr Pinheiro he would not leave a situation with a woman without a conquest.
Claims in Brand's book used against him
It was suggested Brand had pretended to be gay in order to convince a woman he is accused of raping to let him join her in her hotel room. Mr Karmy-Jones produced a page from Brand's book, My Booky Wook, which had a picture of him aged seven with the caption: “This is the exact moment when I decided to act gay to attract girls. It took 15 years to produce results.”
“Is that what you did Mr Brand? Pretend to be gay to attract women?,” asked the prosecutor. “No,” Brand replied. He then added: “It's a joke. 'Look at me, I'm a little boy in my garden and 15 years later… I was meeting women'. It was a joke.”
Ms Karmy-Jones read out other extracts from the book, in which Brand had said he “would never have relented until I received my birthright orgasm”. In one passage he wrote: “My egotism and the single-mindedness with which I pursued potentially sexual conquests could often make me uneasy company”. In another he set out: “Now if I want something – whether it's a job or a woman – I will determinedly, resolutely, remove anything that's in the way, until I possess the object of my desire.”
In the book, Brand referred to himself as a “fervid, febrile mass of sexual energy” towards the end of sex, adding: “I'll do anything. I'm demonically sexy.” And he said it ends up with him as a “guilty little berk in a sweaty tank top”. Ms Karmy-Jones put to Brand that he is “guilty”, and he responded: “Actually not guilty is my plea in every single case.”
Wife's testimony
Russell Brand's wife told the trial her husband is “caring” and “kind” - but that he slept with other women when they first dated in 2006 and 2007. The pair rekindled their relationship in 2015, and now have three children together.
She told jurors: “Russell, my husband, is caring, he is kind, he is a wonderful father to our children. He is an amazingly attentive husband.” She said she knew about his reputation before they first met, and that she learned while they were dating that he had been having sex with other people. She said: “I wasn't interested in having a relationship with him if he was sleeping with other people.”
Golfer father-in-law supports Brand
The Ryder Cup-winning golfer Bernard Gallacher joined his daughter Laura at court during the trial. Gallacher, 77, sat next to his daughter in the public gallery as Brand's lawyer Ian Winter KC delivered his closing speech.
Originally from Bathgate, West Lothian, Gallacher played in eight Ryder Cups and then captained the European team three times. He sat in the back of the courtroom on Monday November 2 while Mr Winter delivered his speech, telling jurors that allegations of sexual conduct in 2023 “poisoned the wells” of justice.
Closing remarks
Russell Brand's barrister urged the jury to separate the comedian's sexual behaviour and treatment of women from the question of whether he committed crimes during his closing remarks on Monday. Mr Winter told jurors: “It is not criminal to treat women unkindly before, during or after sex.”
“It is not, I am afraid, criminal to be disrespectful or rude or to act like a crazy idiot. If there is consent it is lawful.” The barrister said that their allegations came “very, very many years” later, adding that they “only did so once the well of justice had been corrupted and contaminated” and until the “ground had been cut from under his feet and the public mind poisoned against him.”
He questioned how none of the women came forward during the MeToo movement. Mr Winter said: “How is it that it's only three out of the many, many women, how is it that not even these ones, not even these allegations on this indictment, came to light during MeToo.”
Mr Winter said reporting in a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary and by The Times and The Sunday Times prompted the complainants to come forward, but had created a “fundamentally compromised” case against the comedian.
Prosecution's closing remarks
The trial heard that Brand allegedly carried out rapes and sexual assaults while treating women as a “disposable commodity” and a “means to an end”. Speaking during the prosecution's closing remarks, Ms Karmy-Jones suggested Brand's attitude to the women's accusations was “why on earth are they complaining about things that were plainly so trivial?”.
She told the court: “Women as a whole were disposable who didn't matter to him. He didn't even need to know their names. They were just a means to an end.” The jury is now expected to consider its verdicts.
