“Russell Brand, you may know, is a celebrity,” began the opening address at the trial of the comedian, who is charged with three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault, and one of indecent assault, all of which he denies.
Throughout the rest of Wednesday morning, “celebrity” would be followed by other descriptions from the prosecution: “ruthless”, “calculated”, “manipulative”, “a sexual predator”, Riel Karmy-Jones KC told the jury.
“He could be nice when he wanted to be, funny – undoubtedly, charming, likeable even, when he wanted something in return – but then demanding, entitled, a flirt with a huge sexual appetite, childlike in his expectation that his every desire should be met.”
Brand, 51, did not react upon hearing this, or any of the allegations from the six complainants, who accuse him of offences between 1999 and 2009. He sat completely still and straight-backed, at the edge of his seat, staring ahead, seldom looking through the open door on his right, or towards his wife of nine years, Laura Gallacher.
In a navy pinstripe suit, with a small red handbag, she was calm and almost cheerful, returning the stares of the press in the court’s corridors, and as she sat next to her and her husband’s unsmiling, tattooed bodyguard.
Brand is a tall and imposing figure. The high cheekbones of his youth are now hollowed; his long hair still curls down his back, but his beard has greyed. He wore heeled suede boots, a black and white striped shirt, and a white tie that hung below his blazer when he stood. Occasionally, he turned prayer beads over in his hands.
Southwark Crown Court has been subject to a media frenzy since his pre-trial hearings last week, with camera crews camped out on its front steps from 6.30am and members of the public – passersby, tourists, corporate office workers in London Bridge taking a cigarette break, rather than fans – gathering to watch him arrive and depart, silently, in a sleek black Mercedes van.
Inside, though, there is no grand spectacle. Brand’s trial is taking place in a shabby, windowless, airless courtroom, whose only distinguishing feature is the wood panelling on the wall behind the judge. It feels small – during jury selection earlier in the week, the 50 potential jurors struggled to squeeze in.
Twenty-two members of the press are seated just feet away from Brand, and from the small area allocated to the defendant’s friends and family, which on Monday included Brand’s own father, who gave him a bright thumbs-up. On Wednesday a tall, long-haired friend, who looked like a clone of the comedian himself, joined the group.
All leave and enter through the same door – when proceedings paused for lunch on Wednesday, Brand stood and held it open. It is a discordantly intimate setting for a trial that is expected to last up to 10 weeks.
It took around two hours for the prosecution to present the charges concerning six women who, Karmy-Jones told the court, do not know each other and have come forward independently.
The alleged offences span from the time before Brand was famous – as a performer in a satirical cabaret troupe in fringe theatre as part of the 1999 Labour conference; to a rising star of MTV and Channel 4; to an A-list stand-up who, the court heard, bragged on stage in 2009: “If you see me out in the foyer and you think, ‘I really fancy him and would like to have sex with him, but I can’t because it is Russell Brand.’ You probably can have sex with me. My age range is from 16 to death.
“But if I do speak to you and ask you to come to my dressing room, please know I am not doing that to give you an autograph. I will give you an autograph, but it will be on the inside of your uterus with my cum.”
Karmy-Jones told the jury: “His celebrity status was growing as, say the prosecution, was his sense of entitlement to have what he wanted whenever he wanted it.”
The court heard allegations that range from grabbing a woman and attempting to drag her into a toilet with “a desperate wild-eyed look on his face”; to squeezing a woman’s breasts within a minute of meeting her, then pulling her into a toilet and forcing his penis into her mouth; to vaginal and anal rape.
The circumstances and locations of the alleged offences vary – an office, a showbiz party, after a gig. The women’s memories of Brand before the alleged incidents are also varied. One described him as charming and friendly, another as comforting and warm, others only had very brief exchanges, if any words were spoken at all.
The prosecution claims that one woman remembers him pulling on her ponytail by way of introduction, and doing a Basil Fawlty silly walk “like an ostrich” in her hotel room. Another remembers Brand ordering her to take a shower and wash her hair before sex, which he watched as if “administering” her.
It was said that what the women had in common were feelings of guilt in the aftermath. The court heard repeatedly how the complainants had felt it was their own fault, or that others would believe it to be, and feared being judged for the positions they found themselves in. In many cases, it is claimed that this is what kept them from making a report to police.
Some worried that given his ascendancy as a public figure, reporting could jeopardise their own careers. For many years, in discussions with friends about “brushes with fame”, one woman would say that Russell Brand had once asked her out. She did not mention the alleged rape.
The court heard that, for Brand, sex with women had become a challenge. His “desire, strong desire, for some form of sexual contact was indiscriminate and voracious”, the jury were told. “Women and sex were a goal, an obsession.”
Brand’s posture shifted slightly only in the afternoon, when the first witness was called to testify, and he leaned back in his seat to listen. The only word he spoke in court all day was “yes”, when asked if he had a copy of the bundle of evidence, which he perused slowly.
Outside, that morning, he had told the press: “I feel blessed. I feel, of course, concerned, but hopeful that this process will lead to good outcomes for everybody involved.”
The trial continues.