Comedian Russell Brand appears in UK court for start of rape trial

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London (AFP) — British comedian and actor Russell Brand arrived at a London court on Monday for the start of his trial on multiple charges of rape and sexual assault.

Once a left-wing personality and comedian who shot to fame as a television and radio presenter, he has rebranded himself as a conservative guru for millions of social media followers.

Brand, 51, arrived at Southwark Crown Court in the British capital with his wife, Laura, wearing a grey suit and sunglasses.

He faces seven sexual offence charges pertaining to six women, allegedly dating between 1999 and 2009.

He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges — three counts of rape, three of sexual assault and one charge of indecent assault.

Brand sat in the dock at the central London court, where the press benches were packed, an AFP journalist saw. He did not speak during the hearing.

Jury selection began on Monday with the judge, Joel Bennathan, eliminating some potential jurors who said they had watched a 2023 documentary or read an article that were part of a joint investigation into Brand by Britain’s Channel Four television and The Times newspaper.

The judge told jurors he expected they would have heard of Brand from television but asked them not to conduct any online searches.

The trial is expected to last around six weeks, with the first full hearing on Wednesday, but could stretch into December.

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 reality TV series.

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

Brand then made a foray into Hollywood and was in a brief, but high-profile, marriage to US pop star Katy Perry.

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