Judge Reduces Russell Brand’s Indecent Assault Charge As Prosecution Concludes Case In London Trial

In a significant procedural development at London’s Southwark Crown Court, the trial judge has directed jurors to record a formal not-guilty verdict on an indecent assault charge against Russell Brand, reducing the count to attempted indecent assault due to “insufficient evidence”.

The ruling arrived on Tuesday as the prosecution prepared to wrap its case following two weeks of witness testimony. The specific count centers on Complainant 2 (C2), a former MTV employee who testified earlier in the trial that Brand attempted to pull her into a restroom while she was directing him toward the facilities, pleading with her to enter before she pulled away. While the full charge of indecent assault was dismissed on judicial instruction, the lesser charge of attempted indecent assault will be submitted to the jury alongside six other active counts: three counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault involving six women between 1999 and 2009. Jurors also heard prepared statements given by Brand during four separate police interviews between 2023 and 2025. Across the transcripts, the 51-year-old actor and comedian maintained his innocence and pleaded not guilty, characterizing his past lifestyle as “very promiscuous” while insisting every encounter was entirely consensual.

Brand denounced the 2023 joint investigation by The Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches as “defamatory” and “fictitious,” asserting that sensationalized media coverage led past consensual encounters to be “invented or reimagined” decades later. While stating he did not recall the names of the complainants, Brand addressed specific allegations in the police record, including a denial of forcing a woman into a restroom cubicle or coercing non-consensual acts, stating: “I have had consensual sex in toilet cubicles at parties but have never forced anyone into a toilet or forced my penis into anyone’s mouth.”

With the prosecution concluding its witness docket Wednesday morning, Brand’s defense counsel is set to open its case later in the day, with Brand potentially taking the stand in his own defense. The trial is scheduled to continue over the next two to three weeks.