Jill Lawless
Warning: Graphic content
Russell Brand behaved as a “ruthless” sexual predator when he assaulted six women over the course of a decade, a prosecutor alleged as she opened the rape and sexual assault case against the actor-comedian.
Brand, 51, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault. The charges involve six women and alleged offences between 1999 and 2009.
Prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones told jurors at Southwark Crown Court in London on Wednesday (local time) that the six women, who do not know each other, were assaulted in “a hotel room, workplaces, a toilet cubicle in a bar and at his home address”.
She said that at the time Brand had an “indiscriminate and voracious” desire for sexual contact, and “women were simply a means to an end”.
The prosecutor said Brand could be funny and charming, “a flirt with a huge sexual appetite – childlike in his expectation that his every desire should be met”.
“He was ruthless, he was calculating, he was manipulative. And, the prosecution say, he was a sexual predator,” Karmy-Jones said.
Brand listened intently from the dock as the prosecutor described each of the alleged incidents, including the earliest, in which Brand allegedly raped a woman in a hotel room during the Labour Party’s annual conference in 1999. Brand, then a rising stand-up comedian, was performing in a cabaret on the fringe of the conference in the English seaside town of Bournemouth.
Two years later, another woman alleges, Brand tried to drag her into the men’s toilet at the office building where she worked.
“There can be little doubt as to what Mr Brand’s intention was,” Karmy-Jones said.
A third woman alleges that in 2004 Brand orally raped her in the toilets of a London bar, telling her “Don’t be a spoilsport” when she asked him to stop.
Brand is on bail and arrived at court on Wednesday to a crowed of photographers and video journalists. He said he felt “blessed”.
“I feel, of course, concerned but hopeful that this process will lead to good outcomes for everybody involved,” Brand said. “That’s my prayer.”
Known for risqué stand-up routines and battles with drugs and alcohol, Brand rose to prominence in the early 2000s, hosting television programs and his own BBC radio show. He appeared in Hollywood films including Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him to the Greek.
In recent years he has moved away from mainstream media, relocated to Florida and built a large online following with videos mixing wellness, conspiracy theories and discussions of his religious devotion.
The Associated Press doesn’t name victims of alleged sexual violence, and British law protects their identities from the media for life.
AP
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) or the Men’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491.
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