Comedian Russell Brand pleads not guilty to rape, sexual assault charges

British comedian and actor Russell Brand pleaded not guilty Friday at a London criminal court to five charges of sexual offences including rape and sexual assault.

The media personality turned anti-establishment influencer faces one count of rape, one of oral rape, two of sexual assault and one of indecent assault between 1999 and 2005, involving four women.

Crowds were waiting as Brand, 49, arrived at Southwark Crown Court in an open-buttoned shirt and dark blazer for the plea hearing, after being granted conditional bail at a previous hearing.

He gained international recognition as the husband of pop star Katy Perry, but is better known in the UK for his hyper-sexualised and often lewd comedy routines and TV and radio appearances in the early 2000s.

Now living partly in the US, Brand appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court in central London earlier this month, where he showed no emotion as a prosecutor read out allegations against him.

On Friday Brand appeared in the dock flanked by two officers, where he stood stock-still and looked straight ahead as he delivered his pleas.

Prosecutors charged Brand following a police probe into allegations aired in a 2003 Channel 4 documentary.

He is accused of raping one woman in a hotel room following an event in the southern Bournemouth area in 1999.

Another charge relates to the oral rape and sexual assault of a woman in 2004 in central London.

The accusations involve four women, including one who was a TV worker, and another who was a radio station worker at the time of the alleged assaults.

In a video response on X after he was charged in April, Brand said he was "grateful" for the "opportunity" to defend himself.

"I was a fool before I lived in the light of the Lord. I was a drug addict, a sex addict and an imbecile, but what I never was was a rapist. I've never engaged in non-consensual activity," he said in the video.

Born in 1975 to working-class parents in Essex, east of London, Brand began his stand-up career as a teenager, eventually working as an MTV presenter and host of a Big Brother spin-off.

He presented a show on the BBC's Radio 2 station between 2006 and 2008, but quit after an on-air prank when he left a sexually explicit voicemail for "Fawlty Towers" actor Andrew Sachs about his granddaughter.

Once a left-leaning political campaigner and Hollywood star, he has rebranded himself as a conservative guru to his millions of social media followers.

Brand often peddles in conspiracy theories, as well as sharing wellness tips, in his anti-establishment videos. Last year, he said he became a Christian after being baptised in the Thames river.