LONDON — Defence counsel Ian Winter KC told Southwark Crown Court on Monday that extensive 2023 media coverage of sexual conduct allegations against Russell Brand 'poisoned the well of justice', fundamentally compromising the case against the comedian who denies 13 charges spanning 1999 to 2009.
Winter, delivering a closing speech, quoted 19th-century philosopher John Henry Newman on the concept of attempting to 'poison the wells', telling jurors that women had been 'drawn forth' by the 2023 allegations rather than independently deciding to come forward. He argued the media coverage created a 'fundamentally compromised' case environment.
The barrister also emphasized the passage of time, describing the delay between the alleged offences and police reports as 'monstrous', making it impossible to litigate issues fairly. Winter told jurors they were dealing with a 'quagmire of doubt and inaccurate recollection'.
Addressing the first complainant, who alleges rape during the Labour Party conference, Winter said the woman 'fancied him, she invited him back to her tiny bedsit and she consented to the sex that took place there'. He referenced a photograph of Brand blowing the complainant a kiss, telling jurors her conduct was 'completely inconsistent with the allegation she has made for the first time 24 years later'. Winter also challenged the complainant's description of Brand wearing 'budgie smugglers' and jumping around 'like an ostrich', stating photographs did not show him in his underwear.
Regarding an allegation of attempted indecent assault at MTV's offices in central London in 2001, Winter said Brand stopped when the woman refused to go into a bathroom with him, arguing 'he accepted the 'no', so he didn't attempt to assault her into the bathroom, he obviously wanted to go into the bathroom for consensual sex'.
Winter argued that Brand 'genuinely believed' women were consenting, which explained his normal behaviour during and after the incidents. He told jurors: 'He couldn't have been behaving normally if he knew they were not consenting'. He added there was 'no evidence he is some sort of psychopath who rapes people and thinks it's normal'.
Winter also pointed to the testimony of Brand's wife, Laura Gallacher, who fell in love with him 'in full knowledge of what he was doing' and would not have married him if he was 'guilty as charged'. The defence highlighted passages from Brand's 2007 memoir My Booky Wook, describing them as jokes rather than admissions of guilt, including a passage where Brand wrote alongside a childhood photograph: 'This is the exact moment when I decided to act gay to attract girls' — which Winter said 'was so obviously a joke… the joke is that it didn't work'.
Winter added that 2023 allegations against Brand had had a 'truly devastating effect' on him, reminding jurors of Brand being blocked from visiting his baby son when he was having open heart surgery at Great Ormond Street Hospital. 'That tells you the extent to which public opinion has been perverted and corrupted', Winter said.
Brand sat upright and looked straight ahead in the dock during the closing speech. He had arrived at court on Monday morning accompanied by his wife Laura and her father, Ryder Cup-winning golfer Bernard Gallacher. The trial continues.
