Jury selection begins in Russell Brand rape trial at London's Southwark Crown Court
Jury selection started on Monday, 12 October 2026, at Southwark Crown Court, where the comedian denies three counts of rape and four other sexual offences against six women. The alleged offences date from 1999 to 2009.
Jury selection begins
Jury selection began on Monday, 12 October 2026 at Southwark Crown Court in London, where Russell Brand, 51, is on trial. He faces three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault relating to six women, with the alleged offences dated between 1999 and 2009. Brand has denied all the accusations. He arrived at the court in sunglasses and a grey suit, accompanied by his wife, and sat in the dock for most of the hearing, mostly staring straight ahead or with his eyes closed. He said nothing to reporters as he walked into the courthouse.
Judge excludes jurors with prior knowledge
Judge Joel Bennathan told potential jurors that the trial was about to start and that many of them would have heard of the defendant. A group of 50 prospective jurors was first asked whether they had seen a Channel 4 documentary or read a newspaper article about the allegations made in 2023. Six members of the panel who said they remembered the coverage were dismissed. The judge then addressed the jurors who had been initially selected.
The defendant is clearly someone very well known. You absolutely must not carry out any research at all about this defendant Russell Brand.
Allegations and the 2023 coverage
The allegations against Brand were first made public in 2023, when a Channel 4 documentary and a long newspaper article raised claims of sexual misconduct. Brand has firmly denied those claims. TVN24 reports that he has said in the past that in his youth he was a fool and a sex addict, but never a rapist. Previous hearings have heard that he is accused of raping a woman in a hotel room at the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth.
Trial timetable and career
The jurors are to be formally sworn in on Tuesday, 13 October, and the prosecution is expected to open its case on the morning of Wednesday, 14 October. The judge expects the trial to last about six weeks.
- Jury selection begins at Southwark Crown Court
- Jurors expected to be formally sworn in
- Prosecution expected to open its case in the morning
Brand was a regular on British television in the 2000s and worked as a radio presenter for the BBC. He starred in films including Get Him to the Greek in 2010, the same year he married Katy Perry, and the couple divorced in 2012 after 14 months of marriage. More recently he has largely appeared on online programmes, often focused on US politics, religion and free speech.
