Russell Brand was “a sexual predator”, a “manipulator”, a “ruthless” man, the prosecutor accused on Wednesday at the trial in London of this ex-British comedian turned anti-system influencer, pursued by six women for rape and sexual assault.
The incriminated events took place between 1999 and 2009, when Russell Brand was a star television presenter in the United Kingdom, known for his provocative and often lewd humor.
This 51-year-old man, with millions of subscribers on social networks and the false appearance of Jesus Christ with his beard and long hair, denies the accusations against him.
Russell Brand, who now presents himself as a fervent defender of the Christian faith, told numerous journalists upon his arrival at court that he “felt blessed.”
“I am concerned, but I remain hopeful that this procedure will result in a positive outcome for all involved. This is what I pray for,” added the ex-comedian.
Prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones, who opened the proceedings in this trial scheduled until December, did not mince her words in exposing the facts alleged against Russell Brand.
“He was ruthless, calculating and manipulative … he was a sexual predator,” she said. He used women to satisfy his “immense sexual appetite”.
He is on trial for three counts of rape, three of sexual assault and one of indecent assault.
The six accusers “have never met,” emphasized the prosecutor. The events took place in a hotel room, at workplaces, in the toilets of a bar, at her home, she detailed while Russell Brand listened attentively.
“He didn’t care (…) what the woman might feel. (…) His main concern was his insatiable desire to get what he wanted, with whom he wanted.”
“Killjoy”
A woman accuses him of raping her in a hotel room while she was in Bournemouth (southern England) to attend a Labor Party conference in 1999.
The ex-actor is also accused of having forced oral sex on another woman. “She told him: + I don’t want to do that + He replied: + Come on, don’t be a killjoy +”, reported the prosecutor.
Russell Brand “is not necessarily the same as at the time,” admitted the prosecutor. But “despite the passage of time, his responsibility for the wrongdoings and crimes committed when he was younger remains the same,” she added. Russell Brand, who lives in Florida, is free on bail.
Having become a star influencer on social networks, he regularly expresses conspiratorial ideas. He is followed by 4.9 million subscribers on Instagram, 6.6 million on YouTube, 10.1 million on X.
He talks about God, spirituality, love, geopolitics, often in disjointed words, like a guru.
In 2024, he announced that he had been baptized in the Thames, and has since continued to repeat how much his Christian faith has changed him. He supported the President of the United States, Donald Trump.
After his indictment in 2025, he assured X that he had “never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity”.
“I have been a drug addict, a sex addict and a jerk, but I have never been a rapist,” he wrote.
He married American singer Katy Perry in 2010, a marriage which he ended via text message fourteen months later.
He has since remarried a blogger, Laura Gallacher, who appears very often in his publications on the networks and was by his side on Wednesday in court.
