Russell Brand tells trial ‘consent is more important than sex’

Russell Brand told a court “consent is more important than sex itself”, as he insisted he has never raped or sexually assaulted a woman.

The 51-year-old former comedian told Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday that friends and former colleagues have abandoned him in his battle against allegations of being a sexual predator.

Starting his evidence, Brand said it was “devastating” when he was first accused in a 2023 TV documentary and in press reporting.

He issued a series of terse “no” replies when his barrister Ian Winter KC asked him whether he had pinned a woman to a hotel room bed to rape her, sexually assaulted radio and TV workers, raped a young fan, and dragged a woman into a toilet to force her into sexual activity.

He told the court: “Consent is fundamental, essential, necessary, and indeed in many ways more important than sex itself.”

At the start of his evidence, Brand was asked by his barrister, Ian Winter KC, to spell out the effects of being accused of rape and sexual misconduct in reporting by the Sunday Times, The Times, and a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary in September 2023.

He replied: “It was devastating.”

Mr Winter asked: “Were you able to persuade a single person with relevant evidence to give to come to give evidence on your behalf?”

Brand replied: “I have not.”

The barrister continued: “Would they touch you with a barge pole?,” and Brand replied: “No.”

Brand also told the court he was blocked from entering Great Ormond Street Hospital to be with his sick baby son in the aftermath of the 2023 media reporting.

Brand is accused of being a predator who forced women into sexual acts during his “obsessive” pursuit of sleeping with 5,000 women.

Six women have come forward to accuse the entertainer, in allegations which date from 1999 to 2009.

He told the court that since being accused, he has revisited the Nordic bar in Soho where it is alleged he groped an MTV staffer before dragging her to the toilet and forcing her into oral sex in a locked cubicle.

“I spent time there and reflected,” he told the court, adding it “helped me to recall the encounter”.

Brand told jurors he remembers one of his friends introducing him to the woman, after saying something like: “There’s a bird here who really wants to meet you, mate.”

He recalled the woman’s “very prominent eyes”, told jurors they had flirted, and he believed he said to her: “You are really, really beautiful, understand you’re really looking forward to meeting me.”

Brand said there was “absolutely no question” that she had not consented to go to the toilet cubicle with him, but he said he cut short the encounter – likely because of the flooded toilet floor and repeated interruptions – by saying “let’s wrap this up”.

The former comedian added he remembers the woman joining him in his car as they drove to a bar in Camden, he said he had hoped to have sex with her later at his flat in Gospel Oak, and he said he recalls then meeting “attractive” women at the second bar from the TV channel Babestation.

Brand has told the court he does not recall an encounter at MTV in 2001 when a staffer at the channel claims he tried to drag her into a toilet.

But he insisted he would not have been seeking non-consensual sex.

He also told the court he does not remember an encounter with a woman at the Capital Radio studios, when he is accused of kissing and groping her.

Asked by Mr Winter if he had “pushed her against a wall, groped her, kissed her sloppily, and behaved in that manner towards her”, Brand replied: “No.”

He is accused of raping a woman in a hotel room in 1999, before he was famous, after meeting her at the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth.

He said he remembers going back to the “vivacious” woman’s hotel room after they had met at one of his shows, and he said he thought there was “at least the possibility of sex”.

The woman gave evidence that Brand had goose-stepped around the bedroom like the TV character Basil Fawlty and made her take photos of him, and he conceded he was likely at the time to “fool around”.

She told the court Brand had told her “it’s fun” while he raped her, but he gave evidence that he was inexperienced, especially with older women, and would have been saying: “Am I doing this right? Do you like this? Is this OK? Are you enjoying this? Is this alright?

“Things like that, really, in order to elicit approval.”

Brand denies three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault, and one charge of attempted indecent assault.

He is also accused of raping a female fan in 2009, and sexually assaulting a Channel 4 staffer in the same year by thrusting his head into her lap when the comedian’s aides had forced her to give him a massage.

Brand denies all the charges.

The trial continues.