Russell Model arrives at Southwark Crown Court docket on Friday in London.
Jeff Spicer/Getty Photographs
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Jeff Spicer/Getty Photographs
LONDON — Clutching a Puritan prayer guide, actor and comic Russell Model walked right into a London courtroom Friday sporting an unbuttoned black shirt with a number of crucifixes round his neck and repeated the phrases “not guilty” for every of the 5 counts of rape and assault he is been charged with.
This was a pre-trial listening to at London’s Southwark Crown Court docket. Model’s trial is scheduled for June 2026. He stays out on bail till then. He lives in Florida and is required to maintain the courtroom knowledgeable of any handle modifications.
A latest convert to Christianity, Model has leaned into his religion in denying prices that date again greater than 25 years, involving 4 girls who accuse him of attacking them in separate incidents that started early in his profession as a comic, radio host, MTV anchor and actuality TV star. He turns 50 subsequent week.
One of many girls says she met Model at a 1999 convention for the center-left Labour Occasion within the English seaside city of Bournemouth, and alleges that he raped her in a close-by resort room. One other says Model grabbed her forearm and tried to pull her right into a males’s lavatory at a London TV station in 2001. A 3rd accuser says he grabbed her breasts, pulled her into a toilet in a London bar in 2004, and compelled her to carry out oral intercourse. The fourth lady says she met Model whereas he was engaged on a by-product of the Large Brother actuality TV sequence between 2004 and 2005, and that he pushed her in opposition to a wall, groped and kissed her.
Model denies any wrongdoing with all of them.
On Friday, he didn’t converse to reporters as they shouted requests for remark. Model walked previous them sporting all black, with a blazer over a pinstriped shirt unbuttoned to his navel, a number of necklaces and darkish sun shades. He disappeared right into a black Mercedes after the 10-minute listening to.
In a video posted to social media April 4, the day he was charged, Model admits to being what he calls a “sex addict” earlier than embracing Christianity, however denies any wrongdoing and says the “law has become a weapon” used in opposition to individuals who criticize corruption.
“I was a fool before I lived in the light of the lord. I was a drug addict, a sex addict and an imbecile,” he says within the video. “But what I never was, was a rapist. I’ve never engaged in nonconsensual activity.”
Model’s father sat behind him Friday in courtroom. The defendant was flanked by lawyer Oliver Schneider-Sikorsky, who additionally defended actor Kevin Spacey in opposition to intercourse assault allegations in 2023.
Within the early 2000s, Model was a rising star in the UK’s comedy and media scene, working for the BBC and MTV. His standing was elevated after internet hosting the TV present Large Brother’s Large Mouth, a by-product of the favored actuality present Large Brother. He grew to become higher identified within the U.S. after appearing within the comedy films Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him to the Greek.
Since then, he is change into extra effectively often called an web commentator and pundit. Between his YouTube and Rumble channels, his movies criticizing globalism, the mainstream media and vaccines have helped him acquire thousands and thousands of subscribers.
In latest months, Model has taken to social media to profess his conversion to Christianity. Within the runup to the 2024 presidential election, he joined right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson for an occasion within the battleground state of Arizona. There, he closed out the proceedings on his knees in prayer in opposition to what he referred to as “the dark and demonic forces” of the deep state.
NPR’s Andrew Limbong contributed earlier reporting.
