Russell Brand admits he was ‘wrong’ to use fame in pursuit of sex

LAST UPDATE | 14 mins ago

RUSSELL BRAND TOLD jurors at his rape trial he has dedicated much of his life to “beyond reckless philandering and idiocy”, and admitted he had been wrong to use his fame to get sex.

The 51-year-old gave evidence for more than four hours at Southwark Crown Court, insisting that “consent is more important than sex itself” and issuing a string of denials to the charges he faces.

He is accused of raping women in a hotel room, at his home, and in a bar toilet, and other women have accused Brand of sexually assaulting them in a recording studio and a radio station corridor.

Brand told jurors he now believes it was “wrong” that he used his fame in the 2000s to “facilitate sexual access”.

He said: “As I became more successful and famous I was very comfortable allowing that to facilitate sexual access which I agree with you was wrong.”

As his evidence concluded on Wednesday afternoon, he said: “I do recognise 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.”

During the course of his evidence, Brand told the court he does not remember some of the incidents in the charges and in others he remembers only a consensual sexual encounter.

Brand opened his evidence with a string of one word “no” answers when his barrister, Ian Winter KC, asked if he had committed the offences in the charges.

Earlier he told a court he was not able to find anyone to present evidence on his behalf in his trial as he insisted he has never raped or sexually assaulted a woman.

He said 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.”

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

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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.

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”.

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.

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.

Furthermore, 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”.

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.