The start of a London trial over allegations of rape and sexual assault against disgraced comedian and actor Russell Brand has been pushed back from mid-June to October.
The 50-year-old is accused of three counts of rape, three charges of sexual assault, and one allegation of indecent assault, with six women alleging crimes dating from 1999 to 2009. Brand has denied all the charges.
Last month, he appeared at Southwark Crown Court in central London to enter a not guilty plea to two more alleged incidents with two separate women in the British capital in 2009. The first charges against Brand were brought in April 2025 with alleged offenses against four women.
His trial was so far set to start on June 16 at Southwark Crown Court. During a hearing on Monday, Justice Joel Bennathan unveiled a delay of the start of the trial, saying it would now kick off on Oct. 12, Sky News reported. Brand was not present in the court for Monday’s hearing, but was represented by his lawyer.
At the hearing, the judge officially brought together the two sets of charges against Brand into one trial case. Sky News also highlighted that the trial is now scheduled to last longer. Instead of the original plan for up to five weeks, it is now expected to last for around two months.
The police began investigating Brand in September 2023 after receiving a number of allegations, which followed reporting by Channel 4’s Dispatches and The Sunday Times. One of the women told Dispatches that Brand entered a relationship with her when he was 31 and she was 16. Their relationship lasted three months, she had said, and Brand had been “emotionally abusive and controlling.” Another claimed that Brand raped her in 2012 in his L.A. home, according to the Sunday Times.
