The Trial

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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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.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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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.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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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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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.

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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.

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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: 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.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Today the jury have been told by the prosecution that this case focuses on two very different stories. The story of six women, who came forward to report what Russell Brand did to them many years ago. Women whose allegations were consistent and who had nothing to gain from making up their accounts or misremembering what happened to them. And the story of Russell Brand, a man who treated women with disdain, who felt he had a “birthright to an orgasm”, a man who viewed consent as an “obstacle to overcome or ignore.” Those words came from prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones KC in her closing speech to the jury. The closing speech from Ian Winter, on behalf of Russell Brand, will start 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.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Russell Brand's wife, Laura Gallacher, today took the stand to give evidence in his defence. She said she first struck up a relationship with the comedian after meeting him at one of his gigs when she was 19 in 2006. But she said their relationship didn't last more than a few months because he was promiscuous and cheated on her. Eight years later they rekindled their affair and got married. She said he was an 'amazing attentive husband' and 'wonderful' father to their three young children, and she loved him very much. Two other ex-girlfriends also gave statements to the court, telling the jury that Russell Brand was charismatic, gentle and charming when they dated in the 1990s but that they too ended their affairs because of his unfaithfulness and dependence on them for money.

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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: Harriet Muckle

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.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Russell Brand has taken the stand and spent five hours in the witness box denying that he raped, sexually assaulted and attempted to indecently assault six women over a decade. He admitted he used his fame to beg, flirt and seduce countless women and said he'd dedicated much of his life to 'reckless philandering and idiocy.' But he insisted he only had sexual encounters with women who wanted IT and claimed consent was more important than the sex itself because he wanted to feel 'loved and adored.'

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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: Harry Sanders, Alfie Mulcahy and 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.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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The jury today heard the words of Russell Brand for the first time. They were told that he was interviewed by police four times over two years and each time insisted he’d never had non-consensual sex with anyone. He admitted he’d led a promiscuous life and had sex with countless women in a variety of locations, including toilet cubicles. But he insisted the women had ‘invented and reimagined’ their consensual encounters after watching a ‘defamatory and fictitious’ documentary or reading ‘false’ allegations in a national newspaper.

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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: Harry Sanders

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.

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The woman who was Russell Brand's PA at the height of his fame has said his sexual appetite was "insane." Helen Berger was giving evidence at his trial for several counts of sex offences. She said she often encountered Russell Brand having sex with different women - in his dressing room, in the bedroom of his flat in Camden, in the shower and in public toilets. She said even when he was working on a deadline he would ask for a break to "go and have sex." She said his behaviour was normalised by those around him and she quit after eight months. She said she never witnessed anything illegal but he treated women poorly.

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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

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.