Russell Brand wife was pulled into closing arguments at Southwark Crown Court on Friday, when Riel Karmy-Jones used his October 2017 appearance on The Wendy Williams Show against him. The prosecution said the interview showed how Brand viewed women, as the jury neared deliberations over seven charges.
Karmy-Jones told jurors that women were “disposable” to Brand and argued that he saw them as “the amusements” in what he described as his “playground of orgasms.” She also said his own words suggested he thought the world was like an amusement park made out of orgasms when he was young.
Brand’s Wendy Williams remarks
The October 2017 interview mattered because it gave the prosecution a public statement to place beside the allegations heard in court. Karmy-Jones argued that Brand was “rampant” in his desire to have sexual contact whenever he wished, and that junior women in the workplace were treated as a disposable commodity.
Four of the six complainants worked in the television and radio industry at the time of their encounter with Brand. Karmy-Jones said they were wholly unconnected, had never met, and had nothing to gain from coming forward, adding that they had not sought the limelight or made claims for compensation.
Complainant 6 in court
Complainant 6, a former Channel 4 employee, was one of the clearest examples used in the closing remarks. Karmy-Jones said she alleged that Brand demanded a massage during a workplace incident in 2009 and then “plonked his head, mouth, and nose into the area of her genitals.”
She asked jurors, “How would you feel if someone in a position of power in your workplace did that to you?” The question turned the argument away from celebrity and toward power, consent, and the workplace setting the jury has been asked to weigh across the seven counts.
Unanimous verdicts next Tuesday
Mr Justice Bennathan told the jury that the prosecution bears the burden of proof and that they must reach unanimous verdicts on each charge to convict Brand. He expected deliberations to begin next Tuesday, November 3, after the panel heard closing arguments on the three charges of rape, three counts of sexual assault, and one count of attempted indecent assault.
Karmy-Jones also said the women’s stories had haunted them for years and that they came forward after Russell Brand: In Plain Sight and reporting by The Times of London. The practical reality now is simple: the prosecution has finished its last persuasive push, and the jury will have to decide whether the 2017 interview is evidence of character, context, or something more damaging when it starts deliberating next week.
