Russell Brand appears in court for start of rape trial

Russell Brand has appeared in court for the start of his rape and sexual assault trial.

The 51-year-old comedian and actor has been charged with three counts of rape, three charges of sexual assault and one allegation of indecent assault, which are alleged to have occurred between 1999 and 2009 in London and Bournemouth.

On Monday at London's Southwark Crown Court, the process of jury selection began.

The comedian and actor arrived at court wearing a grey suit and sunglasses, accompanied by his wife Laura.

There was a large media presence at the court. The trial is expected to commence on Wednesday.

There are six female complainants in the case.

During the selection process, potential jurors were asked a number of questions by the judge, Mr Justice Bennathan.

"Many of you will have heard of him", the judge said, adding that Brand had been on television "a great deal a couple of years ago.

The judge said: "About three years ago there was a television programme and a long article in the Times newspaper in which some allegations were made against him of sexual misconduct. They were allegations he firmly denied."

He asked potential jurors to tell him if they remembered watching the Channel 4 documentary or reading the article. Six put their hands up.

The judge also told them that the trial is expected to take about six weeks, but jurors might need to be available until 11 December.

The potential jurors were whittled down to 20.

Those jurors were told a smaller group of them would be chosen on Tuesday and sworn in for the trial before being sent home.

Before leaving court Bennathan warned them they must not carry out any research about Brand.

The actor and broadcaster rose to fame as a stand-up comedian and became a household name as host of TV shows such as Big Brother's Big Mouth, and with his own radio programmes on stations including BBC Radio 2 and 6 Music.

Brand went on to establish a Hollywood career, starring in films including Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him To The Greek. In recent years, he has turned to podcasting and now lives in Florida in the United States.