Russell Brand pleads not guilty to new rape and sexual assault charges

London - British media personality and former comedian Russell Brand pleaded not guilty to two new charges of rape and sexual assault at a London court on Tuesday.

Brand, once a left-leaning political campaigner who has rebranded himself as a conservative guru to millions of social media followers, arrived at Southwark crown court carrying a copy of the Bible, with several pages bookmarked.

He wore a fedora, a leopard-print shirt revealing much of his chest and a dark coat.

Brand denied charges of sexually assaulting a woman in London in 2009, and raping another women in the same year, also in the British capital.

His bail was renewed at the end of a brief hearing and he is due to face trial in June.

Russell Brand appears for a hearing regarding the two latest charges against him for rape and sexual assault at Southwark Crown Court on February 24, 2026 in London, England. Jack Taylor / Getty Images

The 50-year-old is facing sexual offense charges involving a total of six women, according to U.K. police.

Brand pleaded not guilty in May to five other charges relating to four women – one count of rape, one of oral rape, two of sexual assault and one of indecent assault between 1999 and 2005.

"These new charges are in relation to two further women and are in addition to the charges issued to Brand in April 2025 which involved four women," London's Metropolitan Police said in a statement in December.

British law protects the identities of people alleging sexual violence.

Born in 1975 to working-class parents in Essex, east of London, Brand began his stand-up career as a teenager, going on to work as an MTV presenter and host of a reality TV series, and later starring in Hollywood films.

He presented a show on the BBC's Radio 2 station between 2006 and 2008, but quit after an on-air prank when he left a sexually explicit voicemail for "Fawlty Towers" actor Andrew Sachs about his granddaughter.

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