OAN Staff James Meyers
9:58 AM – Friday, May 30, 2025
Actor and podcast host Russell Brand pleaded not guilty in a London courtroom on Friday to rape and sexual assault charges that date back over 25 years.
In April, Brand was charged with two counts of rape, two counts of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault involving four different women. The 49-year-old stated “not guilty” after each charge was read at the Southwark Crown Court.
The alleged assaults took place between 1999 and 2005. He previously denied all of the allegations.
Meanwhile, the actor’s trial is scheduled for June 3, 2026, and is expected to last four to five weeks.
The allegations include Brand raping a woman at a hotel room in Bournemoth in 1999, when she attended a Labour Party conference and met him at an event where he was performing.
The woman involved claimed that Brand undressed while she was in the bathroom and when she came out he then forced her on the bed, removed her clothes and raped her.
An additional second woman alleged that the podcast host grabbed her forearm and tried to drag her into a men’s bathroom at a television station in 2001.
A third accuser was a television employee who met Brand at a birthday party in a bar in 2004, she claimed that he grabbed her breasts before forcing her into a bathroom and made her perform oral sex.
The fourth and final accuser worked at a radio station where she met the celebrity while he was working on a spin-off of the “Big Brother” reality television program between 2004 and 2005.
The woman claimed that Brand grabbed her by the face, pushed her up against a wall and groped her breasts and buttocks.
British law protects the identify of victims of alleged sexual violence.
Brand is known for his appearance in several Hollywood films and has hosted radio and TV shows in the United Kingdom.
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