Russell Brand's trial on rape and sexual assault charges has been pushed back from June to October 2026 after a court agreed to combine new allegations with the existing case.
The new date was set after the court heard that adding the later charges would make the original timetable too tight.
Brand, 50, has denied all the allegations against him. He has pleaded not guilty to the original five charges and to two additional charges added later, bringing the total to seven counts involving six women, according to Deadline.
The earlier charges came from a police investigation triggered by media reporting in 2023. Prosecutors charged Brand in April 2025 with one count of rape, one count of oral rape, one count of indecent assault, and two counts of sexual assault, alleging incidents between 1999 and 2005 in Bournemouth and London.
Court reporting has described one allegation as a rape claim from a woman in Bournemouth in 1999. Another alleges that Brand indecently assaulted a woman in Westminster in 2001 by grabbing her arm and pulling her toward a men's restroom.
Other claims in the original case include an allegation of oral rape and sexual assault in Westminster in 2004, along with a separate sexual assault allegation in Westminster between 2004 and 2005, PBS reported.
In December 2025, prosecutors added two more charges after a further review of evidence. Those allegations involve two different women and are said to relate to incidents in 2009.
Reporting on the later accusations says one woman claims she was raped, while another says she was sexually assaulted. Brand was due to answer those charges separately before the cases were merged.
Sky News reported that the allegations now include claims that Brand raped a woman in a hotel room during a Labour Party conference in Bournemouth, grabbed a TV worker's breasts and orally raped her after taking her into a male toilet, and assaulted a woman who worked at a radio station.
The court also heard that one alleged victim said Brand grabbed her face, pushed her against a wall, and kissed her before groping her breasts and buttocks. A further hearing is expected before the October trial date, as per Sky News.
Originally published on Lawyer Herald
