Editor’s Note: This story contains details of alleged sexual offenses that some readers may find distressing..
The indecent assault charge against Russell Brand has been reduced as the prosecution finishes its case at Southwark Crown Court in London.
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The judge told jurors there was “insufficient evidence” to support the charge and instead the charge was reduced to attempted indecent assault. The jury completed the formalities to find Brand not guilty of the now superseded charge. There are six other charges.
The charge concerned plaintiff 2 in the Brand trial – who we call C2 because she has a lifetime right to anonymity – who said she was working for MTV in London at the time and that she showed him where the toilet was when he tried to drag her into the bathroom. “I said, ‘What are you doing? Are you crazy? Let me go,’ and then he started pleading almost saying, ‘Come on, go on, come in,'” she told the court 11 days ago.
Brand had sex ‘in countless places and scenarios’
The judge reduced the charge on the last full day of presentation of the prosecution’s case, although some outstanding issues will be resolved tomorrow morning.
Before the charge was reduced, the court heard several statements Brand made at the start of four different police interviews between 2023 and 2025 about the allegations, during which he repeatedly denied all accusations while claiming he “had sex in countless locations and scenarios, often with people I had just met.”
Brand faces three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and now one count of attempted indecent assault based on allegations made by six women. His team will present its defense starting tomorrow, and he denies all charges and pleads not guilty. Deadline has been carrying a daily live video feed from the courtroom since the trial began.
Brand, who could testify tomorrow, used these prepared statements to police to say he “led a very promiscuous lifestyle, which I spent years openly denouncing.” He criticized the 2023 Channel 4 documentary and The times called the allegations “defamatory” and “fictitious”, which it said had “incentivized additional allegations” that were “invented or re-invented”. “The extent of promiscuity made misleading by recent media attacks has led to a reframing of consensual encounters decades later,” Brand told police.
Brand said he “did not remember the names of the complainants or how they met” but added that it was “entirely possible that I met them and we engaged in consensual sexual activity that has since been reimagined.”
“I have had consensual sex in bathrooms at parties, but I have never forced anyone to go to the bathroom or forced my penis into anyone’s mouth,” he said in a statement responding to an allegation from plaintiff C3 in the lawsuit, who alleges she was orally raped by Brand.
In another police interview, the court heard, Brand said he “had sex in countless locations and scenarios, often with people I had just met”, but again stressed these were all consensual.
“At concerts, press events and travel, I did my best to be approachable, non-discriminatory and loving,” he told police. “I spent a lot of time at these events. I shared kisses with hundreds of audience members at these events and hundreds of photos are available online. Anything I did in public could be photographed once I was famous and could end up in the tabloids. I was aware of this. I regularly made jokes or provocative comments both with audience members and during live performances and broadcasts.”
At the end of each of these pre-prepared statements to police, the court heard Brand said he did not intend to answer police questions “without having sufficient time to review the information and respond accurately”.
Brand could take the stand tomorrow as his defense begins. This should last another two to three weeks.
The trial continues.
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