Russell Brand trial updates: Comedian is 'not a psychopath who rapes people', court hears - as he's supported by father-in-law Bernard Gallacher

By REBECCA CAMBER, CRIME AND SECURITY EDITOR and MARK DUELL, DEPUTY CHIEF REPORTER

Updated: 03:25 GMT, 3 November 2026

Russell Brand is on trial at Southwark Crown Court where he faces three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one allegation of attempted indecent assault. He denies all the charges. Read the Daily Mail's liveblog recap below: 

Key Updates

How to listen to The Brand Breakdown bonus podcast

Just a reminder that you can subscribe to The Crime Desk for an exclusive bonus podcast of The Trial, analysing the key moments from Russell Brand's trial last week.

'The Brand Breakdown' is hosted by reporters Caroline Cheetham and Liz Hull - and you can find out more by clicking below:

Breaking:Russell Brand and his wife leave court

Russell Brand and his wife Laura Gallacher have now left Southwark Crown Court.

The actor and comedian faces three charges of rape, indecent assault, and three counts of sexual assault.

He denies all the charges. The case will resume tomorrow morning.

RECAP - What Russell Brand's barrister told court today

Now Russell Brand's case has finished for the day, let's have a look back at what was heard at Southwark Crown Court today:

• Allegations about Brand's sexual conduct in 2023 'poisoned the well of justice', his barrister said.
• Ian Winter KC said reporting in a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary and by The Times and The Sunday Times prompted the complainants to come forward.
• He claimed this had created a 'fundamentally compromised' case against the comedian.
• Mr Winter said women had been 'drawn forth' by the 2023 allegations rather than independently deciding to report their own.
• He said the women were 'not random, not independent', adding that they had each been 'thoroughly contaminated' by the documentary.
• Of the allegations, Mr Winter said that the women may 'think it now', but this does not 'reflect what they were actually thinking back then'.
• He also argued that the passage of time had created another problem for the case, describing the delay between the alleged offences and reports to police as 'monstrous'.
• Mr Winter said there is 'no evidence' that Brand is 'some sort of psychopath who rapes people and thinks it's normal'.

Brand, 51, denies three charges of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one count of attempted indecent assault against six women, in allegations spanning ten years from 1999.

Court finishes for today - jury told they will go out tomorrow

The trial has now finished for the day and jurors were asked to return to Southwark Crown Court at 10am tomorrow.

The jury were also told that they will be sent out to deliberate after lunch.

Brand's comedy was focused on him 'telling the truth', court told

Brand's comedy was 'radical and different' as he was 'telling the truth about what was going on consensually between adults', Mr Winter said.

The barrister said: 'You may think that while his comedy was certainly not to all tastes and very much the product of the time, he was honest then about it, he was honest then about what sort of sex he was engaged in.'

He said Brand's stand-up comedy was focused on him 'telling the truth', adding: 'When you put yourself back to the time, it was radical and different because someone was telling the truth about what's going on consensually between adults.'

Barrister says no women came forward during MeToo movement

The lawyer questioned how none of the women came forward during the MeToo movement.

Mr Winter said: 'How is it that it's only three out of the many many women, how is it that not even these ones, not even these allegations on this indictment came to light during MeToo.

'Many women were questioning whether they had a bad experience sexually at the hands of a famous person. It could not have been more publicised,' he said.

'How is it that not one of them thought what happened to them involved a crime during the MeToo movement?'

Brand's barrister: 'It is not criminal to act like a crazy idiot'

Mr Winter, concluding his speech, said: 'It is not criminal to treat women unkindly before, during or after sex.'

The barrister went on: 'It is not criminal to be disrespectful or rude or to act like a crazy idiot.'

He added: 'If there is consent it is lawful.'

Massage was 'inappropriate' but 'wasn't a crime', barrister claims

On the sixth complainant, Mr Winter said: 'Unless the sexual breathing element of this offence can be provided it's just a massage.

'A thoroughly inappropriate one, one that shouldn't happen in the workplace, but not a sexual one.'

He added: 'This was not a sexual massage, it was an inappropriate one that never should have taken place but it wasn't a crime.'

Woman 'consented' to sex and 'wished' she had not, court hears

Mr Winter said the woman 'consented' to the sex and 'wished' she had not.

He referred to earlier evidence about the woman feeling as if she 'didn't have the right' to call the incident rape.

The barrister added: 'You may think on her part, she wrestled with this, she didn't feel right to call it rape because it wasn't.

'She went there, consented and wished and wished and wished she hadn't done.'

Woman's 'fan obsession totally clouded her judgment', court told

Mr Winter then took jurors to the evidence of the fifth complainant, who alleges that she was raped by Brand at a Hampstead townhouse in 2009.

He said that she 'completely understood what sort of sex would happen or what he would want to happen when she went to his house'.

The barrister told jurors: 'She went there and was prepared to go along with what he wanted to do.

'And she bitterly regrets it understandably.'

Mr Winter also said that the woman's 'fan obsession' with Brand had 'totally clouded her judgment and caused her to behave is a way that was completely out of character' after watching him perform stand-up comedy at the Hammersmith Apollo.

Barrister mentions Russell Brand's marriage to Katy Perry

Making submissions about the women who alleged Brand assaulted her at the radio station, Mr Winter asked how it is possible that she never mentioned it during his 'incredible fame' and 'marriage to Katy Perry'.

He said: 'How is it remotely possible that in all the years of this incredible fame, his marriage to Katy Perry, that you never mentioned he jumped on you like a maniac behind the bins.'

VIDEO - Russell Brand arrives at Southwark Crown Court

Here's a video from earlier of Russell Brand arriving at Southwark Crown Court this morning - with his wife Laura Gallacher and her father, golfer Bernard Gallacher.