Russell Brand in Court Over Rape and Assault Charges; Pleads Not Guilty

Russell Brand has pleaded not guilty to charges of rape, sexual assault, and indecent assault. The former comedian and actor turned right-wing commentator appeared at Southwark Crown Court in London this week. He faces five separate charges: one allegation of rape, one of indecent assault, one of oral rape, and two further counts of sexual assault. According to the BBC, the offences ‘are alleged to have taken place in central London and Bournemouth between 1999 and 2005, and relate to four women.’ The trial will take place in June 2026.

In September 2023, an investigation by The Times and Channel 4 in the UK revealed a years’ long campaign of alleged rape, assault, and harassment by Brand. In that, five women came forward to allege that they were raped and abused by Brand. One woman said she was only 16 years old when Brand began to groom her. The report also claimed that Brand benefitted from the protection of his aides and the privileges of his celebrity status.

When it was revealed that this report was about to drop, Brand tried to get ahead of the story by claiming that the ‘establishment’ media was out to get him because he was a radical truth-teller. While he was once a self-styled bastion of the left, his hard swing rightward, complete with a showy conversion to Christianity and doing public events with Tucker Carlson, came as no surprise to those paying attention. Before his court date, Brand was on Twitter doing performative prayers and continuing his tedious ‘anti-woke’ routine to distract from the rape allegations.

Since these very serious and extensively documented allegations emerged, two things have happened: One, a lot of comedians and people in the British and American entertainment industries have come forward to admit that Brand’s predator status was an open secret among their communities. And two, Brand has doubled down on his new image as a hard-right rabblerouser and culture war loser who panders to misogynists and anti-vaxxers. This reveals the sad truth of how abuse is allowed to fester, and how accused abusers are able to get away with it even when the tides turn against them. Brand became increasingly unemployable, and he savvily pivoted to a new crowd with no moral standards but an aggressive focus on hating ‘the establishment.’ Never mind that Brand was the establishment for a very long time. It’s the Jordan Peterson or Ben Shapiro shtick: create an Us vs. Them mentality while proudly plundering your audience for cash under the guise of solidarity against the ‘real enemy.’ That those evil forces are usually marginalised groups or just women who don’t want men to hurt them speaks volumes.

For the next year, until Brand is on the stand, expect him to become even more aggressive in his media strategy against not only his abusers but the wider culture. He’s going to scream a lot about ‘traditional values’ and how ‘men can’t do anything anymore.’ Maybe he’ll get his partner to pivot to tradwife content or he’ll sell himself as a hairier Andrew Tate. As we’ve seen time and time again, it takes zero effort to create a fevered conspiracy and get people to rally around hating victims. Regardless of the sheer amount of evidence available, there’s a solid subset of misogynists who will root for the most mediocre, gormless, woman-hating creeps over those they hurt. We’re seeing this in effect right now with Halle Bailey, and we’ve seen it too many times to count in recent years with cases like those of Amber Heard, Megan thee Stallion, and Evan Rachel Wood. There is literal video of Sean Combs beating Cassie repeatedly and he still has ghouls rooting for him in court because they hate women that much.

I’m already tired and scared of how Brand will inevitably spin his own tinhat distractions away from the many MANY accusations of rape and assault he’s facing. The corrosive nature of rape culture has created a system where the callous and unfair nature of the legal system becomes a gamified race to the bottom, one where people are proudly profiting from hating victims and making their lives hell. Make no mistake: Brand is going to make a lot of money off of his ‘fans’ who just want another punching bag to add to their collections. Frankly, this is the new establishment, and Brand is at the head of the table.