Russell Brand Testifies for Four Hours and Denies Every Allegation, Thirty Years Each for the Alexander Brothers, the Birchmore Expert

0:07 Good morning. This is Daily Crime and Justice from Calaroga Media, powered by AI. I'm Garrett Fisher. It's Thursday, October 29th, 2026. Yesterday morning at Southwark Crown Court, Russell Brand's barrister stood up and said four words the whole trial had been waiting for. I call Mr. Russell Brand. Brand walked out of the glass dock, took the Bible in his left hand, and swore loudly enough that the judge complimented him on it. For the next four hours, he denied every allegation. He told the jury consent is, in his words, more important than sex itself. And then the prosecutor asked him about the code he used to save one of his accuser's phone numbers.

0:49 So here's the question for today. When a defendant takes the stand and admits almost everything except the crime, does that help him or hurt him? Let's get into it. This segment discusses allegations of rape and sexual assault and some frank testimony. I'll keep it to what was said in court without graphic detail. The essentials. Russell Brand, 51, is on trial on seven charges. Three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault, and one count of attempted indecent assault involving six women between 1999 and 2009. He has pleaded not guilty to all of them, and he denies all of the allegations. Everything here comes from evidence in open court, as reported by Sky News.

1:34 The day started with a detail I couldn't make up. In the security line, a Sky reporter standing behind Brand watched him take off his sunglasses and his watch, and then place a medium-sized rock in the plastic tray to go through the scanner. He'd also learned the security staff's names. Hello, Adam, he said to one of them. Outside, he told reporters, today is a day for truth. Then he took the stand. His barrister, Ian Winter, opened with short, sharp questions. Did you rape the first complainant? Did you assault the second? And so on down the list. To each one, Brand answered, no.

2:16 At the end of his barrister's questioning, Winter asked him directly whether he was guilty or innocent. I'm innocent, Brand said. In between, he told his story. He described becoming, after meeting Katy Perry in 2009, famous on a staggering scale. He said the 2023 documentary was devastating and that he couldn't find a single person willing to come to court and give evidence on his behalf. Asked whether anyone would touch him with a barge pole, he said no. And he told the jury that after the allegations became public, he was barred from visiting his baby son at Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital during the boy's open-heart surgery because of what had been published about him. Then, one by one, the allegations. On the first complainant, from 1999, he said he remembers performing at the Labour Party conference in fishnet tights, underpants, and a bowler hat. He said she suggested they go to her hotel room, that they had consensual sex with a condom, and that he talked during sex, asking things like, am I doing this right?

3:20 Do you like this? Is this okay? Consent, he told the jury, is fundamental, essential, and necessary, and in many ways more important than sex itself. On the second complainant, the woman at MTV, he said he has no memory of her at all. On the third complainant, the woman at the Soho party in 2004, he said the host introduced them, in his words, with something like,' This bird here really wants to meet you, mate.' He described her as lithe, elfin, and pixie-ish, and said grabbing a woman's breasts would be, quote, disgusting behavior. He said they went into the toilet together, consensually, to fool around, because it's better to do these things in private, and that there was kissing, but no oral sex. Afterward, he said, she came with his group to a club in Camden, where he remembered meeting some women from an adult TV channel called Babe Station. And on the fifth complainant, the woman who says he raped her at his house in Hampstead in 2009, the judge had to step in. As Brand tried to describe their encounter in his dressing room delicately, Mr.

4:30 Justice Benethen told him, Don't be too coy or shy. We're all grown-ups here. Brand said it was a marvelous night. He said that afterward he saved her number in his phone with a code, the letter T, which he said stood for TART, his label for casual hookups. two more letters referring to a particular sexual act, and two asterisks, which he said meant, never ever forget this individual. This is a memorable encounter. He told the jury everything that happened at his house was consensual, that she never told him to stop, that she agreed to his removing the condom, and that he didn't tell her to clean up the bed. As for the text he sent her in Edinburgh months later about wanting to push her further, he said he may have meant having more sex, maybe another threesome. Then came the cross-examination by prosecutor Riel Carmi Jones.

5:24 She started with his police interviews. Over 18 months, she pointed out, he had answered nothing, reading prepared statements instead. And in July of last year, he didn't mention remembering this woman at all. Now he called her the most memorable woman. Was he waiting to see all the evidence so he could build his story around it? She used the word forged. Brand said he'd been doing his best to participate. Later, she pressed him on details of his account that had changed over time. Ms. Carmi Jones, I completely agree, he said. Since these events occurred, there's been escalating recollection. He called the case a deeply traumatic episode that he'd focused on at the expense of his marriage, his children, and his health. She asked whether he had a goal back in 1999 of sleeping with 5,000 women.

6:14 Not a goal, he said. But he agreed he'd been obsessed with sex, asked about his own claim that he wouldn't leave a situation with a woman without a conquest. He said it sounded like a riff on a Woody Allen joke. She read him a caption from his memoir, My Bookie Wook, under a photo of him as a little boy, which said that was the moment he decided to act gay to attract girls. It was a joke. he said. And she read him a passage where he described disappearing shamanistically during sex and asked if his eyes change when he pursued a woman. I accept that they change, he said, when I'm having an orgasm. On the third complainant, she put it to him plainly. You raped her in that toilet, didn't you, Mr.

6:58 Brand? No. Asked if he enjoyed sexual activity in toilets, he agreed that he did, that it happened a lot, and sometimes with people he'd just met. She asked if he didn't care whether a woman protested. He said he would never drag someone into a toilet who didn't want to go. On the fifth complainant, she suggested she was just another conquest in that 5,000-woman pursuit. He said he didn't know how many people he'd slept with, but that it was difficult to dispute that's how he conducted himself. When she suggested he didn't care how the woman was afterward, he said, I recognize the inference, but sort of, yeah. The judge cut in. you knew consent was the million-dollar question. In his police statement, did he ever say he asked her whether she was.

7:44 Up for what happened? No, Brand said. But to tell the truth, I wasn't looking at sex talk in that way. On the sixth complainant at Channel 4, he agreed his behavior that day was petulant and childish, but said he didn't remember asking for a massage and that putting his head in her lap didn't make sense. Asked if he'd found it funny, he said, I don't think it's funny now. Asked about his past in general, he gave perhaps his most striking answer of the day. He said he'd used fame selfishly to get sexual access and that it was wrong. He'd been persuasive, seductive, begging and flirting, he said, and had dedicated much of his life to what seems now beyond reckless, philandering and idiocy.

8:30 When the prosecutor suggested he was guilty, he answered, well, actually, no, not guilty is my plea to all the charges on the indictment. Back to the question I asked at the top. Brand admitted to a lifestyle a lot of people will find repellent, obsessive, careless, built on fame. The prosecution says that's exactly the man who'd ignore a woman saying no. The defense says that's precisely why he's credible. He's not hiding anything except the crimes he says he didn't commit. I'm still keeping my promise of no opinions on the evidence. But this was the day the jury finally got to look Russell Brand in the eye and decide for themselves. The defense finishes its case today. The judge says he expects the jury to begin deliberating on Tuesday. Russell Brand denies all charges. When we come back, 30 years for the Alexander brothers and the expert who says Sandra Birchmore was murdered. On Tuesday in Manhattan, Oren, Alon, and Tal Alexander, the brothers who were once among the most famous luxury real estate brokers in the country, were each sentenced to 30 years in federal prison. If you're catching up, twins Oren and Alon, now 39, and their brother Tal, 40, were convicted in March on all counts, including sex trafficking

10:02 and conspiracy, after a five-week trial in which 11 women testified that the brothers lured them with luxury travel and exclusive parties, then drugged and sexually assaulted them. The jury also convicted them on charges involving minors. Prosecutors said they'd heard from dozens of women. Oren and Tal sold multi-million dollar homes to celebrity clients. Alon ran the family's private security company. On Tuesday, 12 women gave victim impact statements, 11 of them in person. According to the Daily Mail's reporter in the courtroom, one of them, Lindsay Acree, who testified that Tal Alexander drugged and raped her in the Hamptons in 2011, told the court her eight-year-old daughter recently found news stories about her online during a sleepover. Another woman, Alexis Zettel, whose allegations are part of a separate civil lawsuit, told the brothers, who once called themselves the A-team of real estate, you're not the A-team and you're not.

10:59 Above the law. Then the brothers spoke. According to reporters in the room, they acknowledged years of partying and degrading behavior toward women, talked about their wives and children, and asked for the minimum sentence of 15 years. But all three denied raping or drugging anyone. According to Courthouse News, Oren told the court, My brothers and I have never drugged or raped anyone. Alon said he was innocent, and his lawyer pointed to a lie detector test he said Alon had passed. Judge Valerie Caproni was not impressed. According to the Daily Mail's reporter in the room, she responded to the polygraph argument with, Mazel tov that you passed it, drawing laughter, and noted that liars can pass polygraphs too. She told them they didn't have to stand up and deny raping anyone, and according to the same report said, that's a lie and you know it. She called their conduct monstrous, but she also rejected the government's request for life sentences, calling it draconian, and said she didn't believe they were beyond redemption. Each brother got 30 years plus 10 years of supervised release and fines of more than $ 300, 000 each. They'll be in their late 60s when they get out. Their lawyers say they'll appeal. Lindsay Acree, Alexis Zettel, and the dozens of women whose names we'll never know. Someone has to say their names. In Boston, the prosecution in the trial of former police detective Matthew

12:31 Farwell was expected to rest its case yesterday, after what may have been its most powerful day. On Tuesday, the jury heard from Dr. William Smock, the forensic physician the prosecution's case turns on. He told the jury plainly, Ms. Birchmore was the victim of a homicidal act. His reasoning centered on a small bone in the neck called the hyoid. In young people, it's flexible. It doesn't fuse and become brittle until around age 30. Sandra's was fractured and fractured inward on the right side, even though she was found with the weight of her neck on the left. Smock said that's what you'd expect from someone being squeezed, not from a partial hanging, and he said he's never seen a fractured, unfused hyoid bone in a seated hanging like this one. He also pointed to a red mark on her upper chest that he said matched a clasp on the strap. A clasp that, when she was found, was tied around the door. To him, that means the injury happened before the strap was tied there. And he said her hair being caught in the ligature was a huge red flag. His conclusion, this is an altered crime scene.

13:43 Earlier the same day, Farwell's twin brother, William, finished his testimony under immunity. He told the jury that Sandra once told him she'd had sex with his brother when she was 15 and that he didn't believe her because he didn't think his brother was that dumb. And he told the jury that after Sandra died, his brother told him he'd wiped his phone before handing it over to state police. The defense says Sandra took her own life and it has its own answers. It points out that the security video shows Farwell leaving the building at 943 that night. but not when he left Sandra's third floor apartment because there were no cameras on her floor. And it's expected to call its own experts to challenge Smock, including a former chief medical examiner of New Hampshire who says the evidence doesn't rule out suicide. The defense case was expected to begin yesterday with an official from the community college where Sandra earned her associate's degree. Sandra Birchmore was 23.

14:39 Someone has to say her name. When we come back, the week ahead. That's the show for this Thursday. Here's my question for the Spotify crowd. After hearing Russell Brand's testimony, if you were on that jury, what would matter most to you? His denials or his admissions? If you're listening on Spotify, drop a comment. If you've got a friend who's been following the brand trial, this is the episode to send. That's how we grow. And on Apple Podcasts, tap listen uninterrupted at the top of your screen. $ 5 a month, no ads. This show plus thousands of other Calaroga Media shows and the first 30 days are free.

15:28 To everyone already subscribed, thank you. Coming up, the defense wraps up in the brand trial and closing arguments are expected before the jury begins deliberating Tuesday. In Boston, Matthew Farwell's defense begins. And next week, Florida's scheduled execution, which would tie its own annual record. I'm Garrett Fisher. Do better. This episode of Daily Crime and Justice is produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence and is intended for news and commentary purposes only. It is not legal advice. Everyone charged with a crime is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law. Russell Brand has pleaded not guilty to all charges and denies all of the allegations against him. Matthew Farwell has pleaded not guilty. Oren, Alon, and Tal Alexander have been convicted and have said they will appeal. They deny the allegations. On Russell Brand, testimony is as reported by Sky News from Souther Crown Court.

16:29 Under the Sexual Offenses Amendment Act 1992, complainants in sexual offense cases in the United Kingdom are entitled to lifelong anonymity. On the Alexander Brothers, Sentencing details are as reported by CBS News, ABC News, Courthouse News Service, The Real Deal, and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. Some quotations from the judge are as reported by the Daily Mail and have not been independently confirmed by other outlets. On Sandra Birchmore, testimony is as reported by The Boston Globe, Boston.com, WBUR, WJAR, Boston 25 News, and Patch. If you or someone you know has been affected by sexual violence, you can call RAINN at 800-656-4673.

17:13 In England and Wales, you can reach Rape Crisis at 0808-500-2222. If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, call or text 988.