What the court has heard so far
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Russell Brand has denied all the allegations made against him as he took to the stand to give evidence in his trial at Southwark crown court.
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The comedian, 51, told the court that his “entire life has been consumed by these allegations”.
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Brand said he struggled to find anyone to give evidence on his behalf, saying the consequences of the September 2023 investigation by the Sunday Times, Times, and Channel 4 Dispatches were “devastating”.
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He told jurors that he believed consent was “fundamental, essential, necessary and, indeed, in many ways more important than sex itself”.
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During cross-examination, Brand admitted he was “obsessed” with sex in his younger years but denied being unable to function without it.
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He denied the accusation that he would pretend to be gay to make women trust him.
Key events
The prosecutor, Riel Karmy-Jones, asked Brand about the alleged attempted indecent assault against a woman who worked at MTV in 2001, who alleged the comedian grabbed her arm and tried to drag her into a toilet.
She said to Brand if he “quite enjoyed having sex in toilets” at the time, he replied “yes”.
Karmy-Jones asked: “Sex in toilets happened a lot didn’t it?”
Brand said: “Yes.”
Karmy-Jones asked if he remembered there being a struggle when he grabbed the woman’s arm, he said he did not recall.
Court is back in session.
Russell Brand’s cross-examination by the prosecution continues.
What the court has heard so far
-
Russell Brand has denied all the allegations made against him as he took to the stand to give evidence in his trial at Southwark crown court.
-
The comedian, 51, told the court that his “entire life has been consumed by these allegations”.
-
Brand said he struggled to find anyone to give evidence on his behalf, saying the consequences of the September 2023 investigation by the Sunday Times, Times, and Channel 4 Dispatches were “devastating”.
-
He told jurors that he believed consent was “fundamental, essential, necessary and, indeed, in many ways more important than sex itself”.
-
During cross-examination, Brand admitted he was “obsessed” with sex in his younger years but denied being unable to function without it.
-
He denied the accusation that he would pretend to be gay to make women trust him.
Court has adjourned for a break until 2pm.
Brand told the court he could not remember “prancing around” the hotel room after meeting the woman at the Labour party conference in Bournemouth.
“She was shocked when she came out the lavatory, saying that you were … prancing around,” Karmy-Jones said.
Brand replied: “I don’t remember.”
He said it was possible he “jumped on the bed like an ostrich”.
When accused by the prosecutor of “manipulating” his story to fit around the woman’s evidence, Brand replied: “I’m really doing my best to answer the questions as put to me.”
Karmy-Jones put to Brand that he was “pretending to be gay” to gain the trust of the woman who alleged Brand raped her in a hotel room in Bournemouth in 1999.
The jury were shown a short extract from Brand’s book “My Booky Wook”, published in 2007, in which the defendant wrote a caption next to a young picture of himself.
The caption read: “This is the exact moment when I decided to act gay to attract girls.
“It took 15 years to produce results.”
Karmy-Jones said: “That’s something you would do, wasn’t it? That was something you would do to make girls trust you?”
Brand replied: “No.”
During cross-examination, Brand told the court that he “said very many foolish things as a young man”.
Responding to the prosecutor’s question about not leaving a situation with a woman without a conquest, Brand told the court that was like a riff of a joke made by American film-maker Woody Allen, who reportedly said the only advice his father gave him was about “F-word” women.
Brand admitted he was “obsessed” with sex in his younger years but denied being unable to function without it.
Karmy-Jones asked him: “Do you accept that on some occasions you would ask those you worked with if you could ‘go out and have sex now’?”
Brand said: “I don’t remember.”
Karmy-Jones asked: “Do you blame these women for throwing temptation into your path?”
Brand said: “No.”
Continuing her cross-examination, Karmy-Jones asked Brand whether he had a “goal” of sleeping with 5,000 women. Brand told the court he did not.
Karmy-Jones continued: “You said that consent was fundamentally necessary and in many ways more important than sex itself, that wasn’t what you thought between 1999 and 2009 was it?”
Brand said: “Consent is absolutely non-negotiable.”
Prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones is now questioning Brand.
She began by asking: “You blame Dispatches, don’t you?”
Brand was momentarily silent, before Karmy-Jones asked him again whether he blamed Dispatches for the allegations.
She then asked Brand: “You blame the media?”
Brand was again silent, prompting Karmy-Jones to ask “is that a difficult question, Mr Brand?”
“In some ways,” Brand replied, telling the court that there were different types of media and that he was a part of it.
Winter moved on to the final count of sexual assault, involving a woman who said she met Brand while working on a project for Channel 4 in 2009. She alleged he demanded a massage and put his head into her groin area, which Brand denied.
Concluding his questions for Brand, Winter said: “Are you guilty or innocent of these allegations?”
“I’m innocent,” Brand said.
Brand told the court he invited the woman to his flat where they had consensual sex.
When asked by Winter whether he used a condom, Brand said he did.
He said he generally used condoms “in first sexual encounters, particularly and especially if the partner wants that.”
Winter asked Brand whether they moved on to anal sex, Brand told the court that they did and that the woman said it was her first time.
Winter asked Brand whether the woman expressed any reluctance, to which Brand replied “coyness, one might say”.
Winter continued: “Did you say anything about seeking to persuade her?”
Brand replied that he did, telling the court he said “something along the lines of ‘you’ll love it’”.
Brand told the court that the woman consented to continuing sex without a condom.
“Did she tell you to stop, or that she didn’t want to proceed in that way?” Winter asked Brand.
He replied: “No.”
Court is back in session.
Winter has now turned to count 6, in which a woman alleged Brand anally raped her in 2009 after watching his comedy gig at Hammersmith Apollo.
Brand told the court that he had a “striking” and “memorable” sexual encounter with the woman in a dressing room before the alleged incident. He had saved her number on his phone with the initials “AP”, which he told the court meant “anal play”.
Brand told jurors he was “excited and enthusiastic” about meeting her again.
Brand told jurors he couldn’t find anyone to give evidence on his behalf after ‘devastating’ Dispatches documentary
Earlier, Brand told the court that he had struggled to find anyone to give evidence on his behalf, saying the consequences of the September 2023 investigation by the Sunday Times, Times, and Channel 4 Dispatches were “devastating”.
His barrister, Ian White, asked: “Were you able to persuade a single person with relevant evidence to give to come to give evidence on your behalf?”
Brand said: “I have not.”
Winter asked: “Would they touch you with a barge pole?”
Brand said: “No.”
Brand later told the court he did not consider the Dispatches investigation a documentary, saying: “I call it a TV show.”
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