Editor’s note: This story contains details of alleged sexual offenses that some readers may find distressing.
Multiple witnesses in the Russell Brand trial have claimed that their friend was in physical pain and “extremely distressed” after she was allegedly anally raped by the Despicable Me star in 2009.
On the ninth day of Brand’s trial at London’s Southwark Crown Court, witnesses gave evidence in support of Complainant 5 (C5), who alleges that she was raped by the Forgetting Sarah Marshall actor after meeting him at a comedy gig in 2009. Brand denies wrongdoing.
During evidence this week, C5 — the moniker we have given the woman to protect her identity as she has a lifelong right to anonymity — admitted to giving Brand consensual oral sex in his dressing room following his stand-up show. They exchanged phone numbers and met days later at Brand’s home in north London.
C5 said they had consensual vaginal sex at his home, before alleging that Brand turned her on all fours and unexpectedly penetrated her anally, removing his condom. C5 said she asked him to stop, but he continued, allegedly telling her, “I want you to feel my cum,” before he ejaculated.
On Thursday morning, the court heard from nine witnesses who recounted conversations they had with C5 in the days, weeks, and months after the alleged incident at Brand’s house in 2009. Deadline has been following the trial live via a closed video stream from the courtroom.
Two of C5’s friends told the court that C5 was visibly upset following her encounter with Brand. The witnesses said C5 had told them that Brand had penetrated her anally without consent.
“Things took a sudden turn when he turned her over,” one friend told the jury, recounting a phone conversation she had with C5 soon after the 2009 incident. “She said that she thought [or] assumed they would go into doggy style … He then proceeded to enter her anally from behind.”
The witness said C5 was “very shocked,” did not consent to the anal sex, and “was in a lot of pain and asked him to stop.” The witness said C5 told her that there was a “lot of mess, fluids on the bed” and that Brand allegedly said, “she has been dirty and needed to clean up her mess.”
A second friend alleged that C5 told her: “[Brand] was quite aggressive, he forcibly put it in my bum, and it really really hurt.” The friend told the court: “[C5] said there was a lot of mess and blood and poo on the bed, and that he became really nasty and made her clean it up.”
This witness alleged that her friend “couldn’t sit down” in the days after the incident because she was in so much pain. A third witness, whose written evidence was read out in court by the prosecution, claimed that C5 was in “physical pain” and recalled her lying “all scrunched up” in the days after she visited Brand’s home.
A fourth witness recalled C5 being “ashen, she looked ill” after the event. This person told C5 that she had been raped and that she should contact the police. The witness said C5 was reluctant to speak to the authorities because she was concerned that they would not believe her story.
The court heard that C5 was concerned that she could have contracted a blood-borne virus from Brand and that she attended a sexual health clinic to have tests. A nurse at the clinic gave a written statement, which was read out in court by a prosecution lawyer. This witness said C5 had told her that Brand “had anal sex without a condom and she didn’t want that and didn’t consent to that.”
C5’s parents also gave written statements, which were read out in court. C5 visited her parents soon after the events of 2009. “She kept saying she had been assaulted,” her father recalled. “I said to her: ‘[C5], you have been raped.'”
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.
The court has been 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.