The rape and sexual assault trial of UK actor and comedian Russell Brand began at London’s Southwark Crown Court this week.
A woman who alleges the Brand raped her recalled him turning from ”camp, friendly and effeminate to monster-like”.
Brand is charged with three counts of rape, three charges of sexual assault and one allegation of indecent assault, alleged to have occurred between 1999 and 2009 in London and Bournemouth. Brand denies all charges and has pleaded not guilty. Brand has said if any sexual contact occurred, it would have been consensual.
There are six female complainants. Riel Karmy-Jones KC, for the prosecution, stated the women did not know each other and came forward independently of one another.
According to BBC News, the prosecutor described Brand as “ruthless” and a “sexual predator” and a “demanding, entitled, a flirt with a huge sexual appetite – childlike in his expectation that his every desire should be met”.
Karmy-Jones said Brand had told a former flatmate, Mark Pinheiro, that he wanted to sleep with 5,000 women in his lifetime and had strategies to achieve that aim. He is alleged to have said: “All you have to do is tell them what they need to hear,” according to The Guardian’s reporting of the trial.
The first complainant said she met Brand before he was famous, at the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth in 1999. When questioned by police about this allegation, Brand said he didn’t remember the event and never engaged in non-consensual activity.
Brand’s former flatmate Pinheiro was the first person to give evidence on October 14. According to BBC News, Pinheiro told the court Brand had told him he may have gone “a little bit too far” with a woman when visiting the Labour conference.
When giving evidence on October 15, the woman who has alleged the rape said he made her take photos of him half naked, was stripping off his clothes and performed a Basil Fawlty-style walk before the attack, and changed suddenly from “camp, friendly and effeminate to monster-like”.
She said she went back to a hotel room after meeting him, and she had thought Brand “was gay” when they had met earlier. After the alleged attack, she said she feared she may have been pregnant and “blamed myself. I shouldn’t have to blame myself”.
The woman said she had delayed coming forward because she was worried it would have an impact on her professional life. “I was told if you come out with this, your career is done,” she said.
The trial is expected to last for six weeks.
After establishing himself as a stand-up comedian and broadcaster, Brand moved into film in 2008, with roles in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Get Him To The Greek, Rock Of Ages, Catherine Called Birdy and Death On The Nile.
The allegations against Brand first emerged in a joint investigation released by The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4 Dispatches in 2023.
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