Russell Brand Takes the Stand in Rape Trial and Reveals No One Agreed to Testify on His Behalf: ‘My Entire Life Has Been Consumed by These Allegations’

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Russell Brand took the stand in his criminal trial in London on Wednesday, denying all accusations against him and revealing that he was not able to convince anyone to testify on his behalf.

He was called by his lawyer, Ian Winter KC, as the first and only witness as his defense began to lay out its case, according to Sky News. Winter began by asking Brand if he had committed each of the alleged offenses he is being accused of, to which he repeatedly replied: “No.” Questioned about his prominence in the mid-2000s, Brand said that his marriage to Katy Perry in 2010 brought about “staggering fame.”

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Brand then revealed that not a single person with relevant information agreed to testify on his behalf in the trial. “My entire life has been consumed by these allegations,” he told the Southwark Crown Court. “I have devoted myself to these matters.”

He called the 2023 Channel 4 documentary about him “devastating” and claimed that he was not able to visit his sick son in the hospital because he had been publicly accused of rape. “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, according to Sky News.

On Tuesday, judge Mr Justice Bennathan reduced one of Brand’s seven charges from indecent assault to attempted indecent assault, telling jurors that there was “insufficient evidence” regarding an alleged 2001 incident involving a MTV employee. He has also been charged with three counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault, and has pleaded not guilty to all charges. The case involves six female plaintiffs, all of whom are given automatic lifelong anonymity according to U.K. law, and relates to alleged offenses that occurred between 1999 and 2009.

Outside the courthouse on Wednesday, Brand told journalists (via Sky News): “Due to the circumstances of today, I think it would be inappropriate for me to say anything other than I am very grateful that today’s a day for truth and justice and we are blessed that as yet we have a system that can accommodate such things.” He was accompanied by his wife, Laura Gallacher.

On the stand, Brand was then questioned by the defense about the first allegation, concerning a woman who alleged he raped her at the 1999 Labour party conference. After meeting at his cabaret show, Brand said the woman “suggested we go to her hotel room” and he thought there may be a “possibility of sex.” In the room, he said there was “messing about, some kissing on the body and sex with a condom.” Asked about her claim that he forced her to take the photos, Brand responded: “I don’t know how you can make someone take photographs.” Further questioned on the importance of consent, he said, “Consent is a fundamental, essential and necessary, and in many ways more important than sex itself.”

Moving on to the second accusation, involving a woman who claims Brand grabbed her and tried to pull her into a toilet while she was working at MTV in 2001, Brand said he has no recollection of the alleged incident. Regarding the third complainant, who alleged Brand squeezed her breasts at a party in Soho in 2004 and then orally raped her in a toilet, he said he was introduced to her by the host of the party as a “bird” who “really wants to meet you.” He said he “absolutely” did not grab her breasts and said the toilet she claimed he orally raped her in “was unsuitable for me to meet the goal… of getting it off.” He also denied the fourth woman’s allegation, who claimed he allegedly pushed her against a wall and “aggressively” kissed her while she was working at Capital Radio in 2004/2005.

Regarding the fifth accuser, who alleged that Brand anally raped her in 2009 after they had consensual vaginal sex, he claimed that she did not say “no” or tell him to stop. He also said he believed that taking off his condom before the alleged anal rape was a “consensual act,” according to Sky News. He denied sexually assaulting the sixth complainant as well, who alleged she was forced to give him a massage at work in 2009.

“I’m innocent,” Brand said as the defense’s questioning ended.

The prosecution has set out its case over the past two weeks. In her opening statement at the start of the trial, Riel Karmy-Jones KC called Brand a “predator,” adding that he was “ruthless and calculated” with an “indiscriminate and voracious” desire for sexual contact.

Cross-examining Brand on Wednesday, Karmy-Jones asked him if he blames the women who have come forward against him, and Brand said he does not. He also denied that he had a “goal” of sleeping with 5,000 women, as he allegedly told a friend at the time; however, he admitted to being “obsessed” with sex when he was younger. Asked if he ever said he wouldn’t leave a woman alone until he slept with her, Brand referenced a quote from Woody Allen, the director who has also faced his own allegations. “That sounds specifically like a riff on a Woody Allen joke, when he said, ‘The only advice my dad ever gave me on his death bed was always try and fuck the waitress,'” Brand said, adding: “It was a joke.”

Questioned about the specific alleged offenses, Brand responded often with “I don’t remember” or “I have no recollection.” Asked by Karmy-Jones if he is being “selective” with his memory, Brand said he was doing his “best” to remember the events being discussed. He later added, when asked about inconsistencies in his police statements, that hearing the complainants’ allegations during the trial has caused an “escalating recollection” of events.

“It’s been a deeply traumatic episode of my life,” he said. “I’ve focused on it at the expense of my marriage, my children and health. I ask your forgiveness — well, not your forgiveness. I recognize that this recollection includes small details which are inconsistent, and I recognize that.”

Asked generally about his past behavior, via Sky News, Brand said he was “in the position of fame” and “misused that commodity very selfishly,” which was “wrong in retrospect.”

“As I became more successful and famous I was very comfortable allowing that to facilitate sexual access, which I agree with you was wrong,” he continued. “I do recognize I have been a very determined and focused man … With women — of course, which is the subject of my trial — I’ve been persuasive, seductive, begging and flirting, and dedicated a lot of my life to what seems now beyond reckless, philandering and idiocy.”

He later restated that “not guilty is my plea to all the charges on the indictment.”

Brand’s defense will continue on Thursday. The jury is expected to start deliberating a verdict on Tuesday.