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Russell Brand’s lawyer questioned how it was possible that one of the plaintiffs failed to mention the assault that she says occurred during the years of his “incredible fame” and his “marriage to Katy Perry.”
Ian Winter KC said public opinion against Brand, accused of rape and sexual assault, had been “perverted and corrupted” following the publication of an article in The times And Sunday timeand the Channel 4 Dispatches programme.
Brand’s alleged victims claim he changed suddenly after appearing charming, forced them to engage in sexual activity in bathrooms, a hotel room, the hallways of his workplace and his bedroom, and acted as if nothing had happened after the attacks.
Comedian and actor Brand denies seven criminal charges: three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one count of attempted indecent assault.
Here’s what Brand’s lawyer said in response to each of the allegations his client faces…
Labor Party Conference
A woman who attended the Labor Party conference in 1999 accused Brand of raping her in a hotel room after seeing him perform in a cabaret show.
Of the woman, Mr Winter said she “loved him” and “invited him back to her little studio, and she consented to the sex that took place there”.
Referring to his testimony that he wore budgie smugglers and jumped like an ostrich, he said that memory was “completely false”, adding that there were no photos of him “prancing around in his boxer shorts”.
He referred to the woman keeping a photo of Brand sending her a kiss and said her conduct was “totally inconsistent with the allegation she first made 24 years later”.
Mr. Winter then discussed his testimony in a videotaped interview that Brand “didn’t try to please me very much” and said: “That’s not how you describe a rapist.”
The lawyer urged jurors to believe that there was “no evidence to be sure that Mr. Brand raped her.”
MTV offices
An MTV employee testified that Brand tried to drag her into the toilet of the central London offices where she worked in 2001.
Mr Winter said Brand “accepted” the woman’s “no” and therefore “did not attempt to assault her in the bathroom”.
The lawyer said prosecutors “can’t even tell Mr. Brand anything about what he intended to do,” adding, “They had no idea.”
He added that “the well was poisoned and she now generally believes she might have been attacked in the toilet.”
Soho bar
Brand is accused of groping a woman at a birthday party at a Soho bar, before dragging her to the toilet and forcing her to perform oral sex on him.
Her lawyer cited the fact that the woman did not tell anyone that Brand allegedly grabbed her breasts or orally raped her until September 2023.
Mr. Winter said the Dispatches program would have made him think about his meeting with Brand.
He said it was “inconceivable” that the woman would have chosen to get into Brand’s car after the alleged incident, telling jurors: “How possible is it that if you had just been raped on the mouth, you would get into your attacker’s car?”
Radio station
One of the staff at Choice FM in London told the court she was pinned against a wall, groped and subjected to “sloppy” kissing by Brand in 2005.
During his speech, Mr. Winter said his allegations “sound like a maniac jumping on you as you leave a venue or workplace.”
He then asked jurors “who wouldn’t complain about this conduct?”, and said the woman had said “nothing to anyone for 19 years.”
The lawyer said: “How is it possible that in all the years of this incredible fame, his marriage to Katy Perry, that you never mentioned that he jumped on you like a crazy person behind the trash cans? »
Apollo hammer
Brand is accused of raping a 21-year-old fan in 2009, days after they met at his stand-up show at the Hammersmith Apollo, west London.
Mr Winter said she “completely understood what kind of sex would happen or what he would want to happen when she went to his house”.
The lawyer also said the woman’s “fan obsession” with Brand had “totally clouded her judgment and caused her to behave in a way that was completely unlike her” after seeing him perform.
He said she went to his house, consented and “wished and wished and wished she hadn’t done it”.
Massage channel 4
The latest allegation against Brand is that he put his head in a woman’s lap while she was forced to give him a massage.
Mr Winter said that “unless the sexual breathing element of this offense can be provided, it is just a massage”.
He added that it was a “totally inappropriate matter, which should not happen in the workplace, but not of a sexual nature.”
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