Russell Brand pleads not guilty to raping and sexually assaulting two women in 2009
Russell Brand has denied new rape and sexual assault accusations.
The 50-year-old man, who lives in Florida, appeared at Southwark Crown Court this morning to deny charges relating to the alleged incidents in 2009.
It is alleged that the suspect raped a woman between February 7 and March 1, and sexually assaulted another woman between August 31 and December 1.
Brand, who returned from the United States for the trial, spoke only to confirm his name and plead not guilty.
He will stand trial on the charges later this year.
He arrived at Southwark Crown Court this morning in a black Mercedes-Benz; He was wearing a white wide-brimmed hat, a tiger-patterned shirt open to his waist, pinstriped trousers, and a large gray coat.
The former comedian, who said he found religion in early 2024, also carried a copy of the Bible with several bookmarks on it.
The former presenter and actor is currently facing two counts of sexual assault, as well as one count each of rape, indecent assault and verbal rape against four women.
Russell Brand appears before Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday morning where he will enter his defense against charges of rape and sexual assault.
Brand, who appeared in court wearing an open-waist, tiger-print shirt, is already facing five other rape and sexual assault charges this summer.
The born-again Christian carried a marked copy of the Bible as he walked into court from the back of a Mercedes-Benz
He appeared in court in May last year to deny these five charges.
The two new charges he alleged involve two more women.
Detectives began investigating Brand in September 2023 after receiving a series of allegations following reports by The Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches.
The original events are said to have occurred between 1999 and 2005.
Brand is accused of raping a woman in a hotel after they met at a theater event following the Labor Party conference in Bournemouth in 1999.
He is also alleged to have raped a woman working in television, whom he met in a bar in Soho in 2004, grabbing her breasts and forcing her to have sexual intercourse before pulling her into the toilet.
Another woman alleges she was subjected to an indecent assault in 2001, when Brand grabbed her arm and tried to drag her into a men’s room at a television station.
The presenter was working on Channel 4’s Big Brother’s Big Mouth between 2004 and 2005, when he is said to have carried out the final attack on a radio station worker.
Born-again Christian Brand denied the accusations in a video posted online shortly after he was first accused last year.
He told the audience: ‘When I was young and single, before I had a wife and a family… I was a fool, man. Before I lived in the light of the Lord, I was a fool. I was a drug addict, a sex addict, and an imbecile.
‘But I was never a rapist. ‘I have never engaged in any activity without my consent.’
A four-week trial on the five main charges is scheduled to begin at Southwark Crown Court this summer.
Brand was married to Katy Perry from October 2010 to July 2012; He is currently married to Laura Gallacher, sister of sports presenter Kirsty, and they have two children.
before moving to the United States, where he posted frequently on the conservative-friendly video site Rumble.
This is a breaking story; more to come.
