Brand says friends abandoned him after ‘devastating’ sex crime allegations

British comedian and actor Russell Brand said on Wednesday that friends and colleagues turned against him after allegations of sex crimes were made against him, before telling a jury in a London court that consent was fundamental. Brand, once a regular figure on British television and star of a number of Hollywood movies, is on trial accused of three counts of rape, three of sexual assault and an attempted indecent assault involving six women between 1999 and 2009. The 51-year-old former husband of US singer Katy Perry denies all the allegations. Appearing in the witness box in the third week of his trial at London’s Southwark Crown Court, Brand said “no” loudly and clearly when his lawyer asked him if he had committed any of the alleged crimes.

The jury has previously been told how all the complainants came forward to detectives after a documentary was broadcast in 2023 along with a number of newspaper articles in which anonymous allegations were made by other women who are not involved in the trial. Brand, wearing a black suit with an open-neck white shirt and a loose black tie, said the impact had been “devastating” as friends turned their backs on him and not a single person would give evidence on his behalf. Asked by his lawyer Ian Winter if they would “touch you with a bargepole”, he replied: “No. ” ‘CONSENT IS FUNDAMENTAL’, BRAND SAYS As Brand described how his public image had grown over time, he said his marriage with Katy Perry in 2010 had brought him “staggering fame”. The couple split up 14 months later. Prosecutors, who completed their case against him earlier on Wednesday, have described Brand as a sexual predator. They said Brand raped a woman after meeting her at a fringe event at the Labour Party conference in 1999, forced a woman to give him oral sex…