One was a high-profile defendant watched by more than 100 journalists. Another was an unknown man who preyed on a girl almost half his age. Their stories played out minutes apart, one entirely out of the spotlight
What is going on inside Russell Brand’s head as he arrives at court for the start of his rape trial? He sees the dozens of cameras and journalists lined outside Southwark crown court, many of whom have been waiting since before 7am, and he tells himself that the media are all against him. “It seems to me that they believe that I am guilty, and that this should be the rubber-stamping of the process of my destruction.”
He walks with his wife, Laura, and his bodyguard past the photographers, “clickering, clackering, snickering paparazzi, like locusts, peculiar concoctions, not fully humans”, and up into the court, where he is suddenly overwhelmed by “the presence of something very beautiful, grace”. “In a situation like I’m in, it’s impossible not to turn to God. Truth and justice are the only things that can save me,” he thinks.