Russell Brand trial: defence KC tells court he is no 'psychopath who rapes'
Ian Winter KC delivered his closing speech at Southwark Crown Court, arguing that 2023 media allegations had "poisoned the wells" of justice against Brand.
Brand's barrister rejects rape characterisation in Southwark Crown Court closing speech
Russell Brand is not a "psychopath who rapes people and thinks it's normal", his defence barrister told Southwark Crown Court on Monday, as The Guardian UK reports the trial entered its closing-speech stage.
Ian Winter KC, representing Brand, argued that the comedian respects women when they say no and described as a "curious feature" of the case the fact that only three women — out of the "many, many" Brand had slept with during the period in question — had alleged non-consensual sex.
"It is an extremely curious feature of this case that out of the many, many women that Mr Brand had sex with during this period only three of them say they did not consent to anal, oral or vaginal sex," Winter told jurors.
Brand, 51, faces seven offences in total, including three counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault, against six women. The allegations span a decade from 1999. On Tuesday, a charge of indecent assault was amended to attempted indecent assault. He denies all counts.
'Poisoning the wells'
Winter opened his closing address by citing an 1864 passage from the theologian and philosopher John Henry Newman, invoking the metaphor of "poisoning the wells" to describe what he characterised as the effect of media coverage on the proceedings.
He argued that a 2023 Channel 4 Dispatches documentary, alongside reporting in The Times and The Sunday Times, had exposed sexual misconduct allegations against Brand and prompted the complainants to come forward thereafter. "They poisoned the wells in the hope and intention that other people come forward and make allegations against him," Winter said.
The prosecution pushed back on that framing. In her own closing speech on Friday, prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones KC denied that the 2023 reporting had exerted "such a subliminal hold on the minds of six perfectly rational women" as to cause them to "invent, reimagine, recharacterise, recast" their experiences with Brand.
Winter also described the delays between the alleged incidents and the women's reports to police as "monstrous".
Behaviour after the alleged incidents
A further line of argument advanced by Winter concerned the conduct of both Brand and the complainants in the immediate aftermath of the alleged rapes. He told jurors that the three women who alleged rape had each described Brand as behaving "normally" afterwards — something he said was incompatible with guilt.
"That, we suggest, is something that simply cannot have occurred if he is guilty," Winter said. "He obviously genuinely believed that they were consenting because that's the only thing that would explain why his behaviour was normal."
On the earliest allegation, dating to 1999, a woman told the court that Brand had raped her following a fringe cabaret performance at the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth. She said he had left his email address afterwards and asked whether she was enjoying herself. Winter challenged her account and said: "You would have to be a psychopath to be raping someone and asking them if they were enjoying it." He added that Brand had said he was "trying to please her but wasn't successful."
'Highly promiscuous but not unlawful'
Winter also addressed the moral dimension raised implicitly by the case. He acknowledged that Brand had led what he called a "highly promiscuous" life but told jurors that no aspect of consensual sexual behaviour, however distasteful, was relevant to their deliberations.
"Living a highly promiscuous life is entirely lawful however morally distasteful you may find it," he said. "Disgusting, distasteful, immoral — who cares? It's irrelevant to your consideration."
The barrister added that Brand actively sought "approbation and adoration" from sexual partners and respected women when they declined. "He respects it when a woman says no so that makes him someone who is not a rapist," Winter said. "He was seeking the approval in the sex, it's the approval, it's the 'yes I will have sex with you', and that's what he said in his evidence."
The trial at Southwark Crown Court is continuing.
Source: The Guardian UK