The Trial: Russell Brand

Is Russell Brand the ultimate chameleon with an ability to rebrand himself time and time again? From being a stand-up comic whose anti-establishment rhetoric meant he encouraged his fans not to bother voting, to getting close to Ed Milliband and supporting Jeremy Corbyn’s 2015 election campaign, writing for the Guardian and the New Statesman, and dabbling in Buddhism and veganism. Then his move to Florida in 2024 saw him pivot once again - this time to the right, to MAGA, to Christianity and to taste-testing beef jerky on his YouTube channel. In this episode Caroline and Liz chat to correspondent Eirian Prosser who has been chasing his trail in America. Plus we discuss the fallout from yesterday’s 10-and-a-half year prison sentence.

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Presenters: Caroline Cheetham and Liz Hull
Editor: Tom James and Chelsey Ranore
Creative Director: Caroline Cheetham
Producer: Chelsey Ranore
Assistant Producer: Harriet Muckle
Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular
The Trial series uses actors and some voices generated by AI. Their words are taken as verbatim from the official court transcript.

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Russell Brand has been jailed for 10 and a half years. Mr Justice Joel Bennathan told him he had used his fame to exploit women and displayed a ’casual, arrogant disregard of their ’right to say, ‘’No.‘’ He said the former comedian’s entourage indulged his ‘dreadful’ behaviour and should have intervened to stop women being sexually assaulted. The judge also told Brand that he must serve at least seven years before he will be eligible for parole. Caroline and Liz have all the reaction from a dramatic sentencing hearing at Southwark Crown Court today.

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Follow us on TikTok @TheCrimeDesk or on Instagram @TheTrialPod
Email us thetrial@dailymail.com
WhatsApp us +447796657512 (start your message with ‘Trial’)

Presenters: Caroline Cheetham and Liz Hull
Editor: Tom James and Chelsey Ranore
Creative Director: Caroline Cheetham
Producer: Chelsey Ranore
Assistant Producer: Harriet Muckle
Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini
Actor: Catherine Davies-Payne, Grace Haughton, Sarah Gee and Gina Whitaker

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular
The Trial series uses actors and some voices generated by AI. Their words are taken as verbatim from the official court transcript.

Click here to sign up to The Crime Desk's weekly newsletter.
It's free and packed with exclusive interviews, expert insight, and gripping deep dive investigations from across the world.

A Daily Mail production.
Seriously Popular.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Russell Brand is a rapist. A jury today decided that the comedian used his fame to rape and sexually assault four different women. In a dramatic afternoon at Southwark Crown Court, the eight men and four women, decided he anally raped a female fan he met after a gig at the Hammersmith Apollo in February 2009 and also sexually assaulted a woman he groped at Capital Radio; a woman who he demanded a massage from at Channel 4 and also an MTV worker whose breasts he groped at a bar in Soho.
Caroline and Liz were there when the judge, Mr Justice Joel Bennathan, refused to grant him bail and remanded him into custody. He also warned Russell Brand he would be getting a ‘significant’ prison term when he is sentenced on Monday.

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Presenters: Caroline Cheetham and Liz Hull
Editor: Tom James and Chelsey Ranore
Creative Director: Caroline Cheetham
Producer: Chelsey Ranore
Assistant Producer: Harriet Muckle
Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini
Actor: Lucy Ryan

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular
The Trial series uses actors and some voices generated by AI. Their words are taken as verbatim from the official court transcript.

Click here to sign up to The Crime Desk's weekly newsletter.
It's free and packed with exclusive interviews, expert insight, and gripping deep dive investigations from across the world.

A Daily Mail production.
Seriously Popular.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At 2.47pm today Mr Justice Bennathan sent the eight men and four women of the jury out to begin their deliberations. He spent the morning summing up the evidence they have heard over the past 17 days and told them it was now up to them to decide whether Russell Brand is guilty of not guilty of the seven charges of rape, sexual assault and attempted indecent assault that he faces. They will have as long as it takes and Caroline and Liz will be back as soon as their verdicts are in.

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Follow us on TikTok @TheCrimeDesk or on Instagram @TheTrialPod
Email us thetrial@dailymail.com
WhatsApp us +447796657512 (start your message with ‘Trial’)

Presenters: Caroline Cheetham and Liz Hull
Editor: Tom James and Chelsey Ranore
Creative Director: Caroline Cheetham
Producer: Chelsey Ranore
Assistant Producer: Harriet Muckle
Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini
Actor: Cameron Gordon

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular
The Trial series uses actors and some voices generated by AI. Their words are taken as verbatim from the official court transcript.

Click here to sign up to The Crime Desk's weekly newsletter.
It's free and packed with exclusive interviews, expert insight, and gripping deep dive investigations from across the world.

A Daily Mail production.
Seriously Popular.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Russell Brand respected a woman’s right to say “no” according to his barrister, Ian Winter, who addressed the jury today for over three hours. He said Russell Brand had been “staggeringly honest” when he gave evidence in court. He was open about what he remembered and what he didn’t and he had never hidden his promiscuity. Mr Winter said the jury may think Russell Brand was distasteful, immoral or disgusting - but that did not make what he did illegal. He said the Dispatches TV documentary aired in 2023 which made allegations about Russell Brand “poisoned the well of justice” and “invited” women who had not made complaints at the time, to reconsider. And he said the delay in reporting the allegations was a “corruptor of justice” which relied on who had the best recollection.

Subscribe via https://plus.thecrimedesk.com/brand?sc_promo=BRAND
Follow us on TikTok @TheCrimeDesk or on Instagram @TheTrialPod
Email us thetrial@dailymail.com
WhatsApp us +447796657512 (start your message with ‘Trial’)

Presenters: Caroline Cheetham and Liz Hull
Editor: Tom James and Chelsey Ranore
Creative Director: Caroline Cheetham
Producer: Chelsey Ranore
Assistant Producer: Harriet Muckle
Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini
Actor: Alfie Mulcahy

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular
The Trial series uses actors and some voices generated by AI. Their words are taken as verbatim from the official court transcript.

Click here to sign up to The Crime Desk's weekly newsletter.
It's free and packed with exclusive interviews, expert insight, and gripping deep dive investigations from across the world.

A Daily Mail production.
Seriously Popular.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.