Russell Brand Trial: No Witnesses Agreed to Testify for Him

No one with relevant evidence has agreed to testify for Russell Brand, the comedian told a London jury on Wednesday as he began giving evidence at his rape and sexual assault trial. Brand, who faces three rape counts, three sexual assault counts and one attempted indecent assault count, is denying all charges brought by six women over allegations dating from 1999 to 2009. Asked by his barrister Ian Winter whether he had persuaded any witness to appear for the defense, Brand answered: "I have not." Asked whether anyone would touch him with a bargepole, he said: "No." He added: "My entire life has been consumed by these allegations."

The allegations reach back to 1999, when a woman says Brand raped her in a Bournemouth hotel room after a comedy show. In 2004, a second woman alleges he grabbed her breasts, pushed her into a toilet at a Soho bar and orally raped her. A third says he anally raped her at his Hampstead home in 2009 after consensual vaginal sex. A third complainant also alleges he groped her in a bar, led her to the toilets and forced her to perform oral sex. Brand told the court he recalled meeting the first complainant at the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth in 1999, calling her "loquacious" and "interesting." He denied raping her that night. On consent, he told the jury it is "fundamental, essential and necessary, and in many ways more important than sex itself." He said he cared "very much" whether the first complainant wanted sex and added: "I know what no means."

Brand said a friend introduced him to the complainant involved in the 2009 allegation with words to the effect that there was a woman who really wanted to meet him, and he would have told her she was beautiful. He denied grabbing her breasts, calling it "disgusting behavior." He said the two spoke for less than a minute before going to the bathroom to "fool around," and there was "absolutely no question" she consented to entering the cubicle. He acknowledged consensual vaginal sex in his bedroom but denied anally raping her, saying she did not tell him to stop. On the Channel 4 Dispatches documentary that led police to investigate him in 2023, followed by allegations in The Sunday Times, Brand said: "It was devastating." He also described "staggering fame" after marrying Katy Perry in 2010.

The prosecution has finished presenting its case at Southwark Crown Court, and the defense team led by Winter is now laying out its arguments. On Tuesday afternoon, Justice Bennathan reduced the final charge from indecent assault to attempted indecent assault. Brand denies all criminal wrongdoing. The trial could last up to six weeks.