Brand trial judge replaces indecent assault charge as jury hears police denials

At Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday, 27 October, a judge directed jurors to find Russell Brand not guilty of an indecent assault charge, then replaced it with a charge of attempted indecent assault. Jurors also heard prepared statements in which Brand told police he had never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity. He denies the replacement charge and the six other charges still before the jury.

Mr Justice Bennathan said there was “insufficient evidence to support the charge of indecent assault”. It concerned a woman’s allegation that Brand grabbed her arm and tried to pull her into a toilet while she worked at MTV in 2001. The judge’s ruling concerned the original charge; the allegation behind the new charge remains for the jury to consider.

Prosecutors read statements Brand had prepared for four police interviews between 2023 and 2025. In one from November 2023, he said, according to the BBC: “I have never engaged in non-consensual activity.” He also called a documentary containing allegations against him “defamatory and fictitious” and claimed that subsequent appeals for further allegations had led to encounters being invented or reimagined.

Brand faces three charges of rape, three of sexual assault and one of attempted indecent assault. Earlier in the trial, jurors heard a woman’s account of an alleged rape at a London bar in 2004. Brand denies all seven charges. By Thursday, Sky News reported that the defence was presenting its case and Brand’s wife, Laura, was giving evidence.