Russell Brand Faces Rape Trial as Women Describe Alleged Assaults

Three women have described alleged sexual assaults involving comedian Russell Brand as jurors at Southwark Crown Court in London heard evidence on Tuesday, October 20, 2026. The testimony included an allegation of rape at Brand's Hampstead townhouse in 2009 and two separate claims of sexual assault at workplaces.

Brand, 51, faces seven charges involving six women: three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault. The allegations cover the period from 1999 to 2009. According to court reports by The Guardian, BBC and The Telegraph, Brand denies every charge and has pleaded not guilty.

During the proceedings, jurors watched a video-recorded police interview with a woman who said she met Brand after his stand-up performance at the Hammersmith Apollo in 2009. She described herself as a fan and said she later agreed to visit his home, expecting consensual vaginal sex.

The woman told police that the encounter became an alleged rape when Brand began anal sex without her consent and continued despite her requests to stop.

"I felt like I couldn't speak or breathe, the amount of pain," the woman said in her police interview, according to The Guardian.

She alleged that Brand appeared horrified afterward, leading her to expect an apology. Instead, she said, he told her to clean up the mess she had made. The woman also described feeling distressed after leaving the house and seeking sexual health testing because she feared she had contracted HIV.

She told police that she struggled for years with the circumstances surrounding the encounter, including the fact that she had willingly visited his home. Her testimony also covered messages and telephone calls exchanged with Brand after their initial meeting.

Earlier on Tuesday, another woman testified about an alleged assault at Choice FM radio studios in central London during the mid-2000s. She said she had been working when Brand approached her, grabbed her face, kissed her forcefully and pressed his body against hers.

"He was kissing me, it was very frenzied. There was no time for me to even understand what was going on," the woman told the court, according to the BBC.

She said Brand's hands moved over her body while she was pushed against a wall. The woman, now in her 50s, alleged that several people accompanying him witnessed the incident but did not intervene. She said she had not reported the allegation at the time because she feared losing her job and doubted that others would believe her.

A third woman, who worked on a Channel 4 project in 2009, described an alleged incident in which Brand placed his head in her lap near her groin after members of his team asked her to give him a massage. She said she felt repulsed and uncomfortable and reported the incident to her line manager.

"I was so repulsed by the situation," she told the court, according to The Telegraph.

Photographs of Brand's three-story Hampstead townhouse were also shown to jurors. The images included his bedroom, living room and bathrooms, with dark furnishings and a crucifix above the bed.

The court heard that the three women gave evidence from behind privacy screens. Their testimony forms part of the wider case concerning allegations by six women over a decade. The trial continued at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday, with Brand maintaining his denial of all charges.