Russell Brand’s criminal trial has begun at Southwark Crown Court in London, with jury selection underway in a case involving seven charges connected to six women. Brand has pleaded not guilty to every count, which includes rape, sexual assault and indecent assault.
The reported start of the trial moves a case that developed through two separate Crown Prosecution Service charging decisions into open-court proceedings. The Los Angeles Times reported on Oct. 14 that jury selection had started that Monday and that prosecutors were expected to begin presenting their case later in the week. The newspaper, citing the Associated Press, said the trial could last up to 10 weeks.
How the seven charges were assembled
The number of charges now before the court reflects two CPS announcements made eight months apart, rather than one single charging decision. On April 4, 2025, the Crown Prosecution Service authorized five charges against Brand: two counts of rape, one count of indecent assault and two counts of sexual assault. Those counts concerned reports involving four women and alleged offences dating from 1999 to 2005.
A second CPS decision, published Dec. 23, 2025, added one rape charge and one sexual-assault charge. The further-charges announcement said those allegations involved two additional women and reported incidents in 2009. Together, the notices account for the seven counts and six women cited as the trial begins.
That chronology is important because accounts of the case have sometimes placed the charged conduct alongside a wider set of public allegations. The CPS notices identify the specific offences that prosecutors authorized for court; they do not make findings of guilt, and the current proceedings will determine the charges Brand faces. He denied the original counts in May 2025 and has since pleaded not guilty to all seven, according to the Los Angeles Times.
From 2023 reporting to a criminal case
The first CPS charging announcement said its decision followed a Metropolitan Police investigation into allegations made after reporting published in September 2023 by Channel 4, the Times and the Sunday Times. The public allegations described in that reporting extended beyond the precise allegations set out in the CPS charging notices.
For the criminal case, the useful dividing line is between allegations presented in earlier journalism and the seven counts that have been formally authorized and are now being tried. The April 2025 decision covered the alleged conduct from 1999 through 2005 involving four women. The December decision concerned two separate reported incidents in 2009 involving two more women. No conclusion about any count should be drawn from the fact that a charge was authorized.
The available reporting also points to an earlier June 2026 trial setting before the case began in October. No court document or official explanation in the available accounts establishes why the timing changed, so the shift should not be attributed to any particular legal or scheduling development.
Active-proceedings limits
Reporting on the trial is subject to protections that apply in sexual-offence cases in England and Wales. The CPS says complainants are entitled to lifelong anonymity, and it has cautioned that media coverage and online commentary must not prejudice active proceedings. Their names and identifying details cannot be published.
Those restrictions also make precision especially important as the case unfolds. Brand is a defendant who denies the allegations, while the prosecution bears the burden of proving its case in court. The expected start of prosecutors’ evidence later this week will mark the next substantive phase after jurors are selected.