‘Why Only Three Rapes In 10 Years?’: Russell Brand’s Lawyer Turns His Client’s Promiscuity Into A Defense

Russell Brand’s defense lawyer closed his case on Monday by turning the comedian’s sex life into an argument for acquittal, asking jurors at Southwark Crown Court, “Why is it that only three rapes in 10 years?”

Brand, 51, denies three counts of rape, three of sexual assault and one of attempted indecent assault, involving six women and spanning ten years from 1999, STV reported. He has pleaded not guilty to all seven charges, which, as we reported, were first brought against him last year.

His barrister, Ian Winter KC, told the jury that “what matters is he had an immense amount of sex and none of it was unlawful,” according to LBC. “Disgusting, distasteful, immoral, who cares?” Winter added. “It’s irrelevant to your consideration.”

Megyn Kelly walked through the closing on her show on Monday. Reading out Winter’s argument, she said he told jurors it is “an extremely curious feature of this case that out of many, many women Brand had sex with from 99 to 2009, the period of the charges, only three say they did not consent.”

“He’s using Russell’s enormous numbers in the sex field now to benefit Russell,” Kelly said, before putting the point in her own words: “He had a goal of 5,000, three women, three say he didn’t consent out of 5,000. If this guy’s running around just randomly raping women orally, vaginally, anally, wouldn’t there be more?”

The 5,000 figure was not a count of partners. Brand’s former friend Mark Pinheiro told the trial that Brand revealed an ambition to sleep with 5,000 women on a car journey to the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth, ITV reported. On the stand, Brand said he didn’t recall the conversation: “No, not a goal.” He allowed that “it’s entirely possible it’s the kind of badinage (banter) I would have engaged in when I was 24.”

Winter spent much of his speech on the 2023 Channel 4 Dispatches program, which he said had “poisoned the well of justice.” “They all came forward for reasons connected to the TV programme, not for reasons personable to themselves,” he said of the six women. He told jurors there was “no evidence he is some sort of psychopath who rapes people and thinks it’s normal,” and noted that Brand had “left his actual email address – rapists do not leave their address.”

The prosecution has painted a different picture. Opening the case on Oct. 14, prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones KC described Brand as “ruthless, calculated and manipulative,” with a desire for sex that was “indiscriminate and voracious.”

With closing speeches over, the jury must now reach a unanimous verdict on each of the seven counts, all of which Brand denies.