Russell Brand’s October 2017 appearance on The Wendy Williams Show was brought back into court on Friday, when prosecutors used it in closing remarks at his rape trial in London. Riel Karmy-Jones told jurors the interview showed the comic treating women as disposable and as part of what he described as a “playground of orgasms.”
The jury is being asked to decide seven charges: three charges of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one count of attempted indecent assault. Mr Justice Bennathan told the panel it must reach unanimous verdicts on each charge, putting the final decision squarely in the hands of all 12 jurors before deliberations begin next Tuesday, November 3.
The closing stage matters because it is the first time the prosecution has laid its full case against Brand in one sweep. Karmy-Jones said the women behind the charges had nothing to gain, had not sought publicity and had not made compensation claims, while also arguing that reporting by The Times of London and the release of Russell Brand: In Plain Sight helped prompt them to come forward. Four of the six complainants worked in television and radio, she said, which is why the case has also turned on what Brand is said to have thought of women in the workplace.
One allegation stands out for the way it links the trial to a specific place and time. Complainant 6, a former Channel 4 employee, said Brand demanded a massage and then put his head, mouth and nose into the area of her genitals during a workplace incident in 2009. Karmy-Jones said Brand saw junior women in the workplace as a disposable commodity and was rampant in his desire for sexual contact whenever he wished.
That clash is at the heart of the case now. The prosecution has tried to show six women who were wholly unconnected, had never met and had no benefit in speaking out. The jury has also been told that the burden of proof remains on the prosecution and that Brand is entitled to the benefit of the doubt. But once deliberations start, the panel will have to decide whether the Wendy Williams interview is just celebrity bravado or a window into how the defendant behaved when the women say they were alone with him.
