A jury in London began weighing verdicts Tuesday in the rape and sexual assault trial of Russell Brand, and Judge Joel Bennathan told jurors that only a decision shared by all 12 of them would be accepted.
The panel at Southwark Crown Court got the case after three weeks of evidence and argument. Jurors deliberated for roughly an hour before the judge sent them home for the night, cautioning them not to talk about the case with anyone.
I can only accept a verdict that is the verdict of all 12 of you,
Joel Bennathan, judge
The 51-year-old actor and comedian faces seven charges in all: three of rape, three of sexual assault and a single count of attempted indecent assault. He has denied every one.
Six accusers, one decade
Six women who do not know each other accuse Brand of sexual misconduct spanning 1999 to 2009, the years in which he climbed from up-and-coming stand-up to one of Britain's biggest celebrities.
Prosecutors cast him as a predator during that decade. They said the attacks happened in a hotel room, at MTV's London offices, in a London bar's toilet, at a radio station, in a recording studio and at Brand's own home.
The defense case
When he testified, Brand conceded that sex had consumed him when he was younger. He maintained, however, that every encounter was consensual.
His legal team argued the accusers' accounts were weakened because each woman went to police years after the alleged attacks, and only after a 2023 documentary aired anonymous allegations against him. Defense lawyer Ian Winter said that film had corrupted and contaminated the course of justice.
In his closing argument Monday, Winter urged jurors to separate how Brand treated women from whether he broke the law. He said Brand had a vast amount of sex, none of it illegal, and called any judgment of his morals irrelevant to the verdict.
It is not criminal to treat women unkindly before, during or after sex,
Ian Winter, Russell Brand's lawyer
From stand-up to online following
Brand, who remains free on bail, has been in court each day of the trial alongside his wife, Laura Gallacher.
He became famous in the early 2000s for edgy stand-up and public struggles with drugs and alcohol, hosting television shows and a BBC radio program. He later starred in Hollywood films including Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him to the Greek, and was briefly married to Katy Perry. In recent years he moved to Florida, stepped back from mainstream media and drew a large online audience with videos on wellness, conspiracy theories and his religious faith.
