Russell Brand pleads NOT guilty to raping two women and sexual assault – after arriving at court with prayer book

RUSSELL Brand today pleaded not guilty to raping two women and sexual assault charges - after arriving at court with a prayer book.
The TV comic is accused of two counts of rape between 1999 and 2005 in Bournemouth and London.
Brand, 49, is also charged with two charges of sexual assault, and a count of indecent assault during the same dates.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges at Southwark Crown Court today after previously flying into the UK from the States.
A trial set to last between four and five weeks has been set for June 3, 2026.
Brand is accused of raping one woman in a Bournemouth hotel in 1999 after meeting her at a Labour Party conference.
The court previously heard he allegedly grabbed another woman's breasts at a party in Soho before pulling her into a toilet and orally raping her in 2004.
Brand is also accused of grabbing a radio worker by the face and kissing her "sloppily and aggressively" against a wall before grabbing her breasts and buttocks.
The Met Police launched a probe into the TV presenter in September 2023 after The Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches published an investigation into allegations over his treatment of women.
Following the charge, Brand told his 11.3million X followers that he was "never a rapist".
He added: "I’ve always told you guys that when I was young and single, before I had a wife and family… I was a fool, man.
“I was a fool before I lived in the light of the Lord… I have never engaged in non consensual activity, I pray you can see that by looking in my eyes.”
At the height of his fame, Brand starred in a number of Hollywood films, including Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him to the Greek.
He was also an in-demand stand-up comic and presented on Big Brother spin-off shows Big Brother’s Big Mouth and Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack.
Brand presented a BBC Radio 2 show between 2006 and 2008 but was forced to resign after he left a “lewd” voicemail for Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs about his granddaughter.
He has in recent years reinvented himself as an anti-woke political podcaster after splitting his time between the US and UK.
Brand, who was previously married to pop star Katy Perry, shares three children with his wife, Laura Gallacher, 37.
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