Russell Brand pleads not guilty to rape, sexual assault charges in U.K.

LONDON — Clutching a Puritan prayer book, actor and comedian Russell Brand walked into a London courtroom Friday wearing an unbuttoned black shirt with multiple crucifixes around his neck and repeated the words “not guilty” for each of the five counts of rape and assault he’s been charged with.

This was a pre-trial hearing at London’s Southwark Crown Court. Brand’s trial is scheduled for June 2026. He remains out on bail until then. He lives in Florida and is required to keep the court informed of any address changes.

A recent convert to Christianity, Brand has leaned into his faith in denying charges that date back more than 25 years, involving four women who accuse him of attacking them in separate incidents that began early in his career as a comedian, radio host, MTV anchor and reality TV star. He turns 50 next week.

One of the women says she met Brand at a 1999 conference for the center-left Labour Party in the English seaside town of Bournemouth, and alleges that he raped her in a nearby hotel room. Another says Brand grabbed her forearm and tried to drag her into a men’s bathroom at a London TV station in 2001. A third accuser says he grabbed her breasts, pulled her into a bathroom in a London bar in 2004, and forced her to perform oral sex. The fourth woman says she met Brand while he was working on a spinoff of the Big Brother reality TV series between 2004 and 2005, and that he pushed her against a wall, groped and kissed her.

Brand denies any wrongdoing with all of them.

On Friday, he did not speak to reporters as they shouted requests for comment. Brand walked past them wearing all black, with a blazer over a pinstriped shirt unbuttoned to his navel, several necklaces and dark sunglasses. He disappeared into a black Mercedes after the 10-minute hearing.

In a video posted to social media April 4, the day he was charged, Brand admits to being what he calls a “sex addict” before embracing Christianity, but denies any wrongdoing and says the “law has become a weapon” used against people who criticize corruption.

“I was a fool before I lived in the light of the lord. I was a drug addict, a sex addict and an imbecile,” he says in the video. “But what I never was, was a rapist. I’ve never engaged in nonconsensual activity.”

Brand’s father sat behind him Friday in court. The defendant was flanked by lawyer Oliver Schneider-Sikorsky, who also defended actor Kevin Spacey against sex assault allegations in 2023.

In the early 2000s, Brand was a rising star in the United Kingdom’s comedy and media scene, working for the BBC and MTV. His status was elevated after hosting the TV show Big Brother’s Big Mouth, a spinoff of the popular reality show Big Brother. He became better known in the U.S. after acting in the comedy movies Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him to the Greek.

Since then, he’s become more well known as an internet commentator and pundit. Between his YouTube and Rumble channels, his videos criticizing globalism, the mainstream media and vaccines have helped him gain millions of subscribers.

In recent months, Brand has taken to social media to profess his conversion to Christianity. In the runup to the 2024 presidential election, he joined right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson for an event in the battleground state of Arizona. There, he closed out the proceedings on his knees in prayer against what he called “the dark and demonic forces” of the deep state.

NPR’s Andrew Limbong contributed previous reporting.