The jury has begun considering the verdicts in Russell Brand's rape and sexual assault trial. The media personality, 51, has been on trial at Southwark Crown Court in London for three weeks, facing three counts of rape, three of sexual assault and one of attempted indecent assault. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
Giving evidence, he told the court he had been "obsessed" with sex in the past, but insisted it was always consensual. The charges relate to allegations from six women spanning a decade between 1999 and 2009. Prosecutors said the complainants described him as someone who "didn't listen" when they said no, and "didn't care".
On Tuesday, judge Mr Justice Bennathan told the jury of eight men and four women he can only accept a verdict they all agree on. Brand was one of the UK's most high-profile comedians, presenters and actors during the 2000s. At the trial, he admitted using his fame to "facilitate sexual access", which he now said was wrong, but denied ever doing anything criminal.
His barrister told jurors that Brand "had an immense amount of sex", but that "none of it was unlawful". He also said none of the women reported the alleged incidents to police at the time, and that allegations in a 2023 TV and newspaper investigation had "poisoned the well of justice" by prompting women to come forward afterwards. Meanwhile, prosecutors depicted Brand as someone who saw women as a "disposable commodity" who "didn't matter to him" and were simply a "means to an end".
Barrister Riel Karmy-Jones KC, for the prosecution, told the jury that the women said his personality changed "from charming to frightening to nasty" during the alleged attacks. She said the women, who do not know each other, had been "haunted for years" by their experiences. One woman accuses Brand of raping her after they had met at the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth in 1999.
She claimed he turned from "camp, friendly and effeminate" to "monster-like" before the alleged assault. When asked if there was any truth in the allegations that he raped her, he told the court: "No." Another woman claims that the entertainer grabbed her breasts at a bar in London in 2004 before dragging her into a toilet, where he allegedly orally raped her. Brand said he remembered going into the toilet with the woman but did not drag or force her there, or force her to perform oral sex.
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