Russell Brand told a London court he had been unable to persuade friends or former colleagues with relevant evidence to testify in his defense. He described the effect of the allegations against him on those relationships as “devastating.”
The 51-year-old actor and comedian gave evidence for more than four hours at Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday, October 28. He answered questions from his own barrister before being cross-examined by the prosecution.
Brand has pleaded not guilty to seven criminal charges involving six women: three concerning alleged non-consensual penetration, three involving alleged unwanted intimate touching and one count of attempted indecent assault. The alleged incidents date from 1999 to 2009.
Jurors have already heard the women’s accounts. Prosecutors say the complainants did not know one another and came forward independently after allegations about Brand appeared in a television documentary and newspaper reports in 2023.
His Lawyer Asked Whether Friends Would “Touch You With a Bargepole”
Defense barrister Ian Winter KC asked Brand about the consequences of the investigation by The Times, The Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches. After discussing whether potential witnesses would appear for him, Winter asked, “Would they touch you with a barge pole?” Brand answered, “No,” according to ITV News.
Brand also testified that Great Ormond Street Hospital had barred him from being with his infant son during heart surgery and subsequent treatment. He said the explanation given to him and his wife, Laura Gallacher, referred to the published allegations.
He disputed the description of the Channel 4 program as a documentary, telling jurors he regarded it as a television show. He continued to reject the allegations it had brought to public attention.
Cross-Examination Focuses on His Conduct and Changing Account
Under questioning, Brand acknowledged that he had used his growing fame to pursue intimate encounters with women and now considered that behavior wrong. He described his younger conduct as reckless, while maintaining that he had not committed the charged offenses, ITV News reported.
He denied having a goal of sleeping with 5,000 women. Prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones KC also challenged him over accounts that had become more detailed since his police interviews, suggesting he had constructed his version around the complainants’ evidence.
Brand rejected that suggestion. He said reviewing disclosed material, watching recorded interviews and revisiting locations had helped him remember events, according to ABC News. He acknowledged that some details in his accounts were inconsistent.
Three of the charges involve allegations of non-consensual penetration during encounters in a Bournemouth hotel room in 1999, a Soho bar in 2004 and Brand’s London home in 2009. In the last case, the complainant said an initially consensual encounter became an assault.
His 2023 Video Addressed the Original Media Investigation
Before the investigation was published, Brand released a video titled So, This Is Happening. He denied the allegations he said had been put to him by a television company and a newspaper, and claimed witnesses had evidence contradicting their account.
The six women whose allegations are being tried are not the women whose anonymous accounts appeared in that reporting, according to Reuters.
An Attempted Assault Charge Replaced an Earlier Count
On October 27, Mr Justice Bennathan directed a not-guilty verdict on an indecent assault charge concerning an alleged 2001 incident involving an MTV employee. He found insufficient evidence to support that charge, Reuters reported.
An attempted indecent assault count was added concerning the same incident, and Brand pleaded not guilty to it. The woman had told jurors that Brand tried to pull her into a toilet at work and that she broke free. Brand denied intending any intimate contact without her consent.
At the end of Wednesday’s hearing, the judge said he expected jurors to begin considering their verdicts on Tuesday, November 3, according to Sky News.