November 3, 2026

"The comedian’s barrister, Ian Winter KC, argued that that despite what he called mischaracterizations of his client in the media, [Russell] Brand is not a psychopath..."

"... and only a psychopath could have committed the behavior he is being accused of. 'You would have to be a psychopath to be raping someone and asking them if they were enjoying it at the same time,' Winter said, referring to the first of Brand’s accusers.... He then noted that Brand 'left his actual email address — rapists do not leave their address. He left photos she’d taken of him, rapists do not leave their photographs; and he kissed her good-bye, or tried to, when he left.'"

From "Russell Brand’s Defense Comes to a Close in His U.K. Rape Trial" (New York Magazine).
Posted by Ann Althouse at 9:40 AM
Tags: , ,

12 comments:

Aggie said...

Wait, an article in 'Vulture' magazine, the known standard of even-handed treatment and definitely not a tabloid?

'...a 2023 Channel Four documentary about the comedian, in which five women accused him of “rape, sexual assaults, and emotional abuse.” Winter said the journalists involved with the documentary “poisoned the well of justice” by prompting other women to come forward with allegations. “They are all, we say, thoroughly contaminated by the program,” Winter claimed....'

Who is this guy working for, the defense or the prosecution? Does the defense know?

Pro tip: Associating the putative victims in a rape trial with the word 'contaminated' is probably a poor choice.

11/3/26, 9:55 AM
Black Bellamy said...

Oh good lord, fire that lawyer right away!
You never allow the jury to form such an association. Why my client would have have been a murderer to murder those people and my client is clearly not a murderer, I mean only a murderer would try to cover his tracks and my client did not!

11/3/26, 9:58 AM
RCOCEAN II said...

"Over the past two weeks of the trial, prosecutors set out their case and the jury heard from six women who accuse Brand of sexual misconduct between 1999 and 2009."

So we're talking about things from 16 to 26 years ago. What is the statue of limitations for Rape and Sexual assault? its ridiculous that someone can go to Prison 16 years after the fact. Guess these "Rape victims" weren't really that injured since it took them 15-25 years to come forward.

Imagine someone beat you up and put you in the hospital. And you did nothing about it for 25 years - and then came forward. Crazy!

11/3/26, 10:05 AM
RCOCEAN II said...

IRC, Russell Brand isnt a leftist. And this might be the Left destroying him.

11/3/26, 10:06 AM
RCOCEAN II said...

Finally, the whole "Would a rapist do this?" Defense is weak. IRC, Mike Tyson sent his victims flowers the next day and called her. Harvey Weinstein gave some of his victims jobs.

Non-consentual sex is sexual abuse. No matter how nice you are afterwards.

11/3/26, 10:08 AM
imTay said...

Russel Brand was a Tucker Carlson type before Tucker, and I always figured that's why they went after him. I was kind of amazed though, that he got another role, "Death on the Nile" once he was in bad odor with the powers that be.

11/3/26, 10:09 AM
imTay said...

He was also part of the MAGA coalition before it split, you know, when people who opposed war were welcome.

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-mar-lago-mel-gibson-russell-brand-video-1999679

11/3/26, 10:12 AM
Hombre said...

It took me less than five years prosecuting sex crimes to realize that rapists are often delusional. The great fantasy was that “she enjoyed it.” Nevertheless, the abolition of the statute of limitations for sexual assaults against adult women is an invitation to abuse the process.

11/3/26, 10:15 AM
Saint Croix said...

There's this thing in rape psychology, called "wilding," when multiple people might gang rape somebody. This was notorious in the New York jogger case. I know so little about that case, I'm not getting into it. No idea if those men were guilty or innocent.

In Egypt there was the Lara Logan case. In the UK there were an ungodly number of rape victims. Of course the rape victims of October 7. And, depending on whom you believe, the charges at Cornell. In all these cases, it is multiple men versus one woman. Horrific.

I want to suggest, tentatively, that their might be a similar dynamic when we see multiple women gang up and attack one man. The so-called "me too" movement, where women are encouraged to pile on, like a crazy game of Kill the Man With the Ball. And we count up multiple victims.

It's a strategy, I think, because there is safety in numbers. And also it overrides the traditional criminal protections for serious crimes. In a criminal trial, we have a presumption of innocence. And you have to prove guilt "beyond a reasonable doubt." And you have to get 12 people (sometimes "12 angry men") to agree to convict. And that can be very difficult. It's designed to be very difficult. Not because our country hates women. But because our country hates innocent people going to jail.

So the feminist response is to gang up on the system, and have multiple accusers. It's the flip side of the gang rape. And you try to get as many women as possible to join in. And by sheer weight of numbers, you can get a target off the streets and into prison. Where he will be raped for real.

Anyway, I see this number game as a political tactic. It's not evidence of guilt. It gives the appearance of evidence of guilt. Look how many women are accusing him! But, as in the gane rape situation, it may be that the group might be the evil ones, and the individual might be innocent.

I don't know, I wasn't there. But I do feel that feminism is awful, in our society, and quite capable of horrific violence and massive dishonesty. This is kind of shocking, I guess, because in my actual life, women are sweet and nice and pretty. Very pretty!

For example, in the Graham Platner case, I decided the Republican accuser was 100% honest. While I thought the "feminist" accuser was talked into making an accusation to get him out of the race. Kind of disgusting.

So that sort of political behavior -- by feminists -- make adjudicating cases like this very hard. Especially when you don't know any facts! I wasn't there. But I do have concerns that a leftist system that overlooked Islamic rapes for a couple of decades, might be piling on to make this white Christian go to prison. Or maybe he did it, I don't know. I have heard zero evidence. But the feminist movement is not helping in this prosecution, and their tactics, and dishonesty, and group hatred of men, and using the media to adjudicate the appearance of guilt, is deplorable to me.

Be a humanist, not a feminist. Meryl Streep came up with that. And she is right.

11/3/26, 10:26 AM
Sydney said...

Whenever I hear that Heart song, "Magic Man," I think of him.

11/3/26, 10:49 AM
Rustygrommet said...

imTay said...
He was also part of the MAGA coalition before it split, you know, when people who opposed war were welcome.

It's not your stance on the war in Iran. It's the fact you want Jews off your planet.

11/3/26, 10:50 AM
Aggie said...

'...IRC, Russell Brand isnt a leftist....'

This is the issue. Brand has rather recently and very publicly started to think for himself.

He's being prosecuted for Wrong Think, and sometimes Wrong Think prosecutions can be, shall we say, rather allegorical? Comrade?

11/3/26, 11:18 AM

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