British comedian and actor Russell Brand has told police that he never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity, despite having sexual encounters in numerous locations and circumstances, a London court heard on Tuesday.
The 51-year-old is standing trial at Southwark Crown Court over alleged sexual offences involving six women between 1999 and 2009. He has denied all the allegations.
Brand, once one of Britain’s most prominent broadcasters and the former husband of American singer Katy Perry, faces three counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault.
New Charge Brought After One Allegation Dropped
On Tuesday, the judge directed the jury to return a not-guilty verdict on an allegation of indecent assault. However, Brand will now face a new charge of attempted indecent assault relating to the same alleged incident.
The court had previously heard that the women came forward to detectives following a 2023 documentary and several newspaper reports about Brand.
Prosecutors have portrayed Brand as a predatory figure, while the comedian is expected to present his defence on Wednesday.
During Tuesday’s proceedings, prosecutors read statements Brand had provided to police during four interviews between September 2023 and July 2025.
In his statements, Brand described the documentary and newspaper reports as “defamatory and fictitious”, claiming they contained false and anonymised allegations that encouraged others to make further accusations against him.
He argued that the reports had paved the way for “further incidents to be reinvented or reimagined”.
“I have never engaged in any non-consensual sexual activity,” Brand said in his statement.
He acknowledged that he had been highly promiscuous in the past, a lifestyle he said he now condemned. He also described having sexual encounters in toilet cubicles at parties and in numerous other locations, often with people he had only just met.
“Those encounters were always consensual,” he said.
Six Women Make Allegations Against Brand
The jury has heard several allegations relating to incidents over a decade.
One woman alleges that Brand raped her after they met at a fringe event during the Labour Party conference in 1999.
Another alleges that he forced her to perform oral sex in the toilets of a London bar in 2004, while a third claims he molested her at a radio station in 2004 or 2005.
A fourth woman alleges that Brand tried to pull her into the men’s toilets at MTV Europe in London in 2001, where she was working at the time.
Another woman alleges that Brand anally raped her at his home in 2009 after she had agreed to consensual sex.
The final allegation concerns a woman who worked at Channel 4 during a recording project with Brand. She claims she was forced to give him a massage, during which he placed his head between her legs.
Brand denies all the allegations against him. The trial is ongoing.
