Russell Brand‘s rape trial is officially underway at London’s Southwark Crown Court, with the prosecution describing the disgraced actor and comedian as a “ruthless” and “calculated” sexual predator.
Eight men and four women are serving on the jury, the selection of which took place on Monday and Tuesday this week. On Wednesday, Brand was photographed arriving at the court with his wife, Laura, who was reported to have warmly smiled at him throughout the proceedings in court.
Brand, best known for his roles on Big Brother’s Big Mouth and in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, is accused of three counts of rape, three charges of sexual assault and one allegation of indecent assault, with six women alleging crimes dating from 1999 to 2009. He denies all of them, telling a swarm of journalists on Wednesday morning: “I feel blessed. I feel, of course, concerned, but hopeful that this process will lead to good outcomes for everybody — that is my prayer.” (Since the allegations have come to light, Brand has turned to Christianity and been baptized.)
Such was the heavy media presence at Southwark Crown Court that officials were forced to put journalists in an “overflow room” watching through video link, according to BBC News coverage. The BBC described Brand as remaining “very still” throughout Wednesday’s session, rubbing what looked like a pebble.
Details of the claims against Brand were revealed by the prosecution, led by lawyer Riel Karmy-Jones. She kicked off by telling the jury that Brand was “ruthless and calculated” in his attacks against the six women, who “have never met each other, and who came forward independently of each other.”
“His desire, strong desire for some form of sexual contact was indiscriminate and voracious,” continued Karmy-Jones in her opening remarks. She called Brand a “sexual predator,” and cited the testimony of a former friend of his, who said Brand bragged to him that he was “a ladies man, a womaniser, and an expert pick-up artist.” According to this ex-acquaintance, Brand said he wanted to “bed 5,000 women” in his lifetime and had set himself “rules” to achieve this.
The first complainant, whose claims Brand says are untrue, was said by the prosecution to have been raped by Brand. In her 20s at the time, Karmy-Jones said she was told “exactly what she needed to hear” and that he manipulated the situation to have sex with her “against her will.” This woman reportedly assumed Brand was gay and left the room to use the bathroom, telling him to make a cup of tea. When she emerged from the toilet, the prosecution said, Brand was partially undressed. “She was taken aback, she was shocked and didn’t really know what to do, and in her words, she froze a bit,” said Karmy-Jones.
After the alleged rape, the prosecution says Brand was questioned by police. He said if it happened, he didn’t remember the incident. He said he did not remember the complainant’s name but “had never engaged in non-consensual activity.” The first complainant said she was “too scared to say anything” because of his celebrity status.
The second complainant’s allegation of indecent assault dates back to 2001, when she was in her 30s and working at MTV. After admiring Brand’s T-shirt, the prosecution said that he offered to give the woman the item of clothing. “Make sure you give it a good wash first,” she says she told him, and offered to show Brand where the toilets were. Here, prosecutors say, he asked her to “come in” and grabbed her forearm. She began struggling and pulling back and described a “desperate, wide-eyed look on his face,” according to the BBC. Brand eventually relented and went into the toilet.
A third complainant says she met Brand at a party in Soho, London in 2004. In the middle of a conversation, he lurched forward and grabbed her breasts and squeezed them with both hands, the prosecution told the jury. The woman was “shocked” and Brand had a “big, weird grin” on his face, she said. He grabbed her arm and pulled her toward the toilets. As they drove to another venue later in the evening, the prosecution says Brand pulled out his penis and told the complainant to “suck it.” Karmy-Jones said: “He simply laughed but appeared to accept her refusal.”
The fourth complainant relates to an incident in 2004/2005 at Capital Radio, where Brand “grabbed” the woman’s face with both hands and pushed her up against a wall, the prosecution said. “He also grabbed her body, at her breasts, sides and buttocks — aggressively,” according to Karmy-Jones’ counsel. The complainant tried to push him off, but “he was too strong. […] He continued to kiss her on her face, and down her neck and onto her chest area, grabbing her bum and moving his mouth towards her cleavage, and grabbing her breast so hard that it was painful.” She was then able to push him away. A reminder: Brand denies all of these claims.
The fifth complainant is reportedly the youngest of the women involved. She is said to have met Brand when he was performing at the Hammersmith Apollo in London in 2009. The incident began with consensual vaginal sex. “She said she did not really enjoy the experience. It felt very awkward and said it could have been anyone,” according to Karmy-Jones. Brand then raped her anally, while the woman asked him to stop, the jury was told. “She spent months and years blaming herself for what had happened, and became extremely anxious and continued to be unwell as a result,” said Karmy-Jones.
Prosecutors say after this interaction that the woman received a text from Brand, to which she replied something along the lines of: “Why are you even messaging me?” He is said to have responded: “Because you’re dirty, and I wanna push you further.” The fifth complainant says told him: “I think you pushed me far enough — you treated me like an animal.” His response was immediate — “I’m sorry” — and she did not see or hear from Brand again, the jury heard. The prosecution said Brand was interviewed in relation to this offence, and provided a statement to police. “In that statement he set out that he has never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity, and that any accounts had been reinvented or imagined after a defamatory documentary and subsequent press reporting,” the counsel informed the court.
The sixth complainant accused Brand of sexual assault. She says he demanded a massage when she was working with him in 2009. When she refused, Brand was described as becoming “unhappy” and said he would not complete the task otherwise. He is alleged to have fallen to his knees “and placed his head directly into her groin area.” The woman did complain at the time in 2009 and it “went higher up the ladder,” but she felt it wasn’t taken seriously.
Brand denies every single allegation from these six women. Toward the end of Wednesday’s proceedings, the jury was again told that he “provided a prepared statement setting out that he has never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity, and that any accounts had been reinvented or imagined after a defamatory documentary and subsequent press reporting.”
The trial could last up to 10 weeks.