Russell Brand took the stand at Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday and denied every charge against him in his rape and sexual assault trial, telling the court the allegations had been “devastating” to his life.
Brand, 51, walked into court alongside his wife, Laura Gallacher, and told reporters outside that “today is the day for truth and justice.”
Once in the witness box, Brand gave his sworn full name, Russell Edward Brand, and answered “no” to each of the charges against him: three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one count of attempted indecent assault.
Under questioning from his lawyer, Ian Winter, Brand said friends and colleagues had abandoned him since the allegations surfaced and that no one with relevant evidence had agreed to testify on his behalf in court.
“My entire life has been consumed by these events, these allegations, these accusations,” Brand said.
Brand also told the court he was barred from staying with his newborn son in the hospital after anonymous allegations against him appeared in a newspaper and a television documentary in 2023.
“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.
Over the trial’s first two weeks, prosecutors laid out their case and called six women who accuse Brand of sexual misconduct between 1999 and 2009. Prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones told the jury Brand was “ruthless, he was calculating, he was manipulative. And, the prosecution say, he was a sexual predator.”
As his defense attorney walked him through each alleged incident, described by accusers as occurring in a hotel room, the offices of MTV and the toilet of a London bar, Brand denied forcing any woman into anything against her will.
“Consent is fundamental, essential, necessary, and indeed in many ways more important than sex itself,” Brand said.
Brand built his career on risqué stand-up comedy and a public battle with drugs and alcohol before rising to fame in the early 2000s as a television host and BBC radio presenter. He appeared in Hollywood films including “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “Get Him to the Greek” and was briefly married to pop star Katy Perry.
He has since left mainstream media behind, relocated to Florida and built a large online following through videos covering wellness, conspiracy theories and his religious conversion.
