Russell Brand asked jurors to forgive him as he gave evidence at his trial, admitting that he had exploited his celebrity status and spent years pursuing what he now describes as “beyond reckless” sexual behaviour.
The 51-year-old comedian acknowledged that it was wrong to use fame to gain “sexual access”. He told the court that much of his life had been devoted to behaviour that, in hindsight, amounted to reckless philandering and “idiocy”.
Appearing before Southwark Crown Court, Brand said he had once enjoyed “staggering fame” but claimed the rape and sexual assault allegations had left him professionally isolated, with no one now willing to “touch him with a barge pole”.
The comedian, formerly known for his rapid-fire wit and elaborate speeches, appeared visibly hesitant in the witness box. At points he struggled to answer, moving his lips silently before responding to questions about alleged attacks involving six women.
Brand’s defence followed a three-year police investigation and nearly two weeks of evidence about the allegations. His time in the witness box lasted just one day, with the trial expected to conclude on Thursday morning.
At the beginning of his evidence, Brand said he had been unable to find even one person prepared to testify for him after a “devastating” Channel 4 documentary exposed the allegations in 2023.
Asked by his barrister, Ian Winter KC, whether anyone would still “touch you with a barge pole”, Brand answered firmly: “No.”
During about an hour of questioning from his legal team, Brand denied all seven charges. They include three counts of rape, three allegations of sexual assault and one count of attempted indecent assault.
Russell Brand leaves Southwark Crown Court, where he faces rape and sexual assault charges. Brand is joined by his wife, Laura Gallacher (pictured)
Brand, in a court sketch from Wednesday, denies all charges against him
Brand told the jury that consent was “non-negotiable”, arguing that it mattered even more than sex itself.
However, his evidence became more difficult as the hearing continued. He repeatedly asked for questions to be clarified or repeated while prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones KC challenged him over his views about women and reports that he had aimed to sleep with 5,000 women.
Brand also apologised for giving “inconsistent” details. He accepted that his current memory of certain events differed from the version set out in his original defence statement.
Speaking more quietly, he said he now remembered some of the women and incidents in question, despite previously telling police that he could not recall them. During those interviews, he had suggested the women had “invented” or “reimagined” their accounts.
“Since these events occurred, there’s been an escalating recollection,” Brand said. He described the case as a deeply traumatic period that he had concentrated on at the expense of his marriage, children and health.
He then told the prosecutor: “I ask your forgiveness — well, not your forgiveness.”
Brand accepted that his memories included minor inconsistencies, saying he recognised and acknowledged those differences.
In a barely audible voice, he said he had been highly determined and focused, particularly in his relationships with women. He described himself as persuasive, seductive, flirtatious and sometimes pleading, adding that he had devoted much of his life to conduct that now appeared recklessly promiscuous and foolish.
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Brand, pictured on Wednesday, told jurors the allegations and subsequent public backlash had devastated his life and career
He said his growing success and fame had been selfishly and regretfully misused. Brand told the court that he had been comfortable allowing his celebrity to help him gain sexual access, a use of fame he now accepted was wrong.
The court heard that Brand regarded his youngest victim aged 21 as a ‘tart’ after the then 33-year-old star picked her and a 19-year-old girl out of a line-up of fans for a ‘threesome’ after a Hammersmith Apollo gig in 2009.
Brand is accused of inviting the woman back to his £2.3million Hampstead home days later where he anally raped her, leaving her needing medical treatment.
Ms Karmy-Jones said the victim was saved as a contact in Brand’s phone under ‘T for Tart’ and two stars which may have been a ‘rating’ following the threesome, which Brand described as a ‘marvellous night’.
The prosecutor asked Brand if the traumatised woman who developed an alcohol addiction after the attack was just ‘another conquest on your way to 5,000’.
Brand replied: ‘I really do not know the numbers, but it is difficult to dispute that, that is how I conducted myself in those years.’
When asked if he saw blood or excrement on his sheets following the alleged rape, Brand shrugged: ‘I have a vague recollection but nothing I considered remarkable at the time.’
His wife Laura Gallacher and father Ron watched from the public gallery as Brand explained how he had been ‘obsessed’ with sex as a younger man, frequently having sexual encounters with women he had just met.
He told jurors that he experienced ‘staggering fame’ after his brief marriage to pop star Katy Perry in 2010.
But after the 2023 Dispatches programme, the star was so vilified that he was being blocked from visiting his baby son when he was having open-heart surgery at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Brand was confronted with extracts from his own 2007 book, My Booky Wook in which he suggested that pretending to be effeminate and gay was a tactic to win women’s trust.
In the autobiography, Brand wrote of his ‘birthright orgasm’ saying: ‘My egotism and the single-mindedness with which I pursued potentially sexual conquests could often make me uneasy company.’
He wrote of himself as a ‘fervid, febrile mass of sexual energy’, adding: ‘If I want something – whether it’s a job or a woman – I will determinedly, resolutely, remove anything that’s in the way, until I possess the object of my desire.’
The prosecutor pointed out that Brand refers to himself after sexual encounters as a ‘guilty little berk in a sweaty tank top’.
Ms Karmy-Jones told Brand: ‘You are guilty.’
He replied: ‘No, actually not guilty is my plea in every single case.’
The trial continues.