Editor’s note: This story contains details of alleged sexual offenses that some readers may find distressing.
The latest accuser in the Russell Brand trial has alleged there were witnesses present when the actor and comedian assaulted her at a radio station premises in the mid-2000s.
The fourth woman, whom we are calling Complainant 4 (C4) as she has a lifelong right to anonymity, said the Forgetting Sarah Marshall star was “violent” and “there were witnesses” when he allegedly “grabbed my face, and was pushing his body against mine, literally walking me backwards,” according to Sky News.
Giving evidence from behind a screen, the woman told London’s Southwark Crown Court that Brand, who was then a well-known TV presenter in the UK, was with a woman and three men at the time. She said they did nothing as the alleged assault took place.
Brand faces three charges of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one of indecent assault based on allegations made by six women. He will set out his defense later in the trial, denies all charges and has pleaded not guilty. Deadline has been reporting from a live video feed of the courtroom since the trial began, but a tech outage meant remote access was down this morning.
According to Sky News, which is in the courtroom today, C4 said she felt “dirty, shocked, stunned and shaken” after the assault. After Brand had “touched my bum, my breast” and “pinned me against the wall,” the woman said she “pushed him and told him to f**k off,” at which point Brand made a sound that was like “haha” and one of the men started to laugh, Sky News reported.
The complainant told the courtroom that she “does not gain a single thing” from giving evidence, having come forward after watching around up to 10 minutes of the 2023 Channel 4 documentary about Brand. All of the six women who have come forward say they did so after becoming aware of the documentary, but the prosecution has repeatedly stressed that the accusers do not know each other.
“To be here to say that, I actually do not gain a single thing… This is a situation I did not want to be in, I don’t gain a single thing by saying what happened to me,” C4 said under examination from Brand’s lawyer Ian Winter, according to Sky News.
The court was told repeatedly that Brand declined to answer questions when interviewed by police. He instead relied on a prepared statement, in which he claimed that he did not recall meeting the women and did not remember their names. He said any sexual contact was consensual.
The trial continues.