Russell Brand told police he never engaged in non-consensual sex, court hears

Brand's account to police

Russell Brand, 51, sat for four police interviews between November 2023 and July 2025, and in each one he read out a prepared statement denying any non-consensual sexual activity, the court heard on Tuesday, 27 October 2026. Officers first questioned him on 16 November and 14 December 2023, then again on 17 January 2024 and 17 July 2025. The statement described his earlier life as promiscuous, a past he said he had spent years openly denouncing. It also blamed a defamatory and fictitious documentary broadcast on 16 September 2023 alongside two national newspapers, which he said carried false, anonymised allegations. He argued that the media and police then invited more complaints, and that some of those encounters had been invented or reimagined.

“As I have repeatedly stated publicly and written about extensively, I led a very promiscuous life in the past, which I have spent years openly denouncing.”

In the statement, Brand said he could not recall the name of one alleged victim or meeting her. He described his past dealings with fans as friendly, consensual and warm, and said he had kissed hundreds of people at public events, many of them photographed. He also said his solicitors had written to officers with questions before the interview, and that those questions went unanswered. In the December 2023 interview, he told officers that he might have met the women who accused him and that the contact may have been consensual before being reimagined.

“It is entirely possible that I may have encountered them and that we may have engaged in consensual sexual activity or physical contact that has since been reimagined.”

The charges and the court's ruling

Brand is on trial at Southwark Crown Court in London on seven counts: three of rape, three of sexual assault and one of attempted indecent assault. The allegations involve six women and date back to 1999, and he denies every count. On Tuesday, the judge, Mr Justice Bennathan, said the evidence was insufficient to support an indecent assault charge concerning a woman who said Brand grabbed her arm and pulled her toward a lavatory in 2001, while she worked at MTV. The jury was asked to find him not guilty of that count and received an amended indictment that puts a charge of attempted indecent assault to him, a charge he has pleaded not guilty to. The prosecution is due to conclude on Wednesday morning, 28 October 2026, and the defence is expected to begin afterwards.

Former assistant's evidence

A statement from Helen Berger, who worked as Brand's personal assistant from June 2006 to February 2007, was read to the court. She said she had been asked to collect the phone numbers of female fans, a request that made her uneasy but fitted a working atmosphere in which, she said, people normalised his behaviour. Berger told the court that Brand talked constantly about sex, had sexual encounters day and night, and was very explicit about his needs. She said she had to keep his mother and his partner away while he had sex in toilets and backstage areas. Berger added that she never saw him do anything illegal, but saw him treat women in a disgusting way, and that she left the job feeling sick and ended up with burn-out.

What comes next

The prosecution is due to finish on Wednesday, 28 October 2026, and the defence is expected to open its case afterwards. The articles do not give a date for a verdict. Brand's statement said the allegations concerned events that allegedly happened more than 19 years earlier, which is why he argued that memories and encounters had been reshaped over time.