Russell Brand was “ruthless and calculated” with a “blind and voracious” desire for sexual contact, the prosecution alleged in his opening statement at the actor and comedian’s rape trial in London.
Brand was charged with three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault. He pleaded not guilty and denied all charges.
The jury was selected on Tuesday, made up of eight men and four women. The case involves six complainants, all of whom are automatically granted lifetime anonymity under UK law, and concerns alleged offenses occurring between 1999 and 2009.
In the mid-2000s, Brand was best known as a comedian and actor, hosting shows such as “Big Brother’s Big Mouth” and starring in films such as “Get Him to the Greek” and “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” He has since moved into podcasting and online influencing.
Arriving at Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday morning, Brand wore a black suit, pinstriped shirt, loose white tie and sunglasses. He was accompanied by his wife, Laura Gallacher, whose hand he shook. According to BBC News, Brand told reporters upon entering: “I feel blessed. Of course I feel concerned, but I hope this process leads to good outcomes for everyone – that’s my prayer,” he said. Inside the courtroom, Brand appeared to rub what looked like a rock or pebble in his hand.
Riel Karmy-Jones KC leads the prosecution and sets out the case against Brand. As the BBC reports, the six alleged victims “did not know each other, never met” and “came forward independently of each other,” Karmy-Jones noted.
Brand was “ruthless and calculated” and “would sometimes tell women what they wanted to hear” to satisfy his sexual appetite, Karmy-Jones claimed. “The circumstances of the offense were as wide and varied as the defendant’s career,” she said. “His strong desire for some form of sexual contact was blind and voracious.”
Karmy-Jones called Brand “a flirt with a huge sexual appetite – childish in his expectation that all of his desires will be satisfied.” He “would seem unconcerned” after an alleged assault, she said. “Sometimes he would leave immediately after the incident, sometimes finding an excuse to run away or sometimes just continuing as if nothing had happened,” she said, according to BBC News.
The prosecution called a former friend of Brand’s, who claimed that the comedian had bragged to him about wanting to sleep with “5,000 women” over the course of his life and that he had established “rules” for doing so, including telling women “what they want to hear.”
In relation to the first alleged victim, who was in her 20s at the time of the incident in 1999, the prosecution said she first met Brand at the Labor Party conference in Bournemouth and assumed he was gay. Later, in his hotel room, she invited him to make a cup of tea while she went to the bathroom. When she came out, she was shocked to find him “partially undressed”.
“Perhaps some of her confusion can be explained by the defendant’s behavior, because as she came out of the bathroom he was prancing around the room – a bit like an ostrich, doing silly walks like Basil Fawlty,” Karmy-Jones said, as reported by BBC News. “She was taken aback, shocked and didn’t really know what to do – and in her words, she froze a little.”
The prosecution then alleged that Brand raped her. She “described drifting out of her mind, knowing there was nothing she could do, as he pulled down her pants and underwear, penetrating her vagina with his penis – raping her,” Karmy-Jones said.
The plaintiff did not report the alleged incident at the time because of Brand’s “celebrity status,” which she “now greatly regrets,” Karmy-Jomes said. When she finally filed a police report and Brand was questioned, the prosecution claimed he didn’t remember his name or the incident, but insisted he “never engaged in non-consensual activity.”
The second alleged incident occurred in 2001 and involved a woman in her 30s who worked at MTV. As BBC News reports, Brand asked her where the toilet was, and when she showed him, he asked her to “come in” and allegedly grabbed her forearm. She resisted and managed to free herself. The woman said she told another person about it at the time, but didn’t formally report it until 2023 because she thought it might be relevant information after the Metropolitan Police began their investigation into Brand.
The third alleged victim claims she met Brand at a party in Soho in 2004, where he grabbed her breasts mid-conversation, prosecutors alleged. The woman recalled that Brand had a “big, weird smile” on his face during the alleged incident, then dragged her to the bathroom where he allegedly orally raped her.
The fourth allegation occurred at Capital Radio in 2004-2005. Brand allegedly pushed the woman against a wall and “aggressively” kissed her while grabbing “her body, breasts, sides and buttocks,” the prosecution said, according to BBC News. The alleged victim tried to push him away but “he was too strong and he continued to kiss her on her face, down her neck and across her chest, grabbing her buttocks and moving his mouth to her cleavage, and grabbing her breast so hard it was painful,” Karmy-Jones said. When she finally pushed him away, he “sniggered like it was a joke,” she added.
The alleged incident with the fifth complainant occurred in 2009. The alleged victim met Brand while he was performing at the Hammersmith Apollo in London, and their sexual relationship began consensually. They had vaginal sex and she asked him to wear a condom, which he did, the prosecution said. Brand then allegedly raped her anally. She asked him to stop and he didn’t, the prosecution said, then she realized he allegedly took the condom off. According to BBC News, Karmy-Jones said the woman “spent months and years blaming herself for what happened, and became extremely anxious and continued to feel bad as a result.”
The summer after the incident, prosecutors said the alleged victim saw Brand at a work event and ran away. She then received a text message from him, on a phone that she no longer owns. When the woman asked Brand why he was messaging her, he allegedly replied, “Because you’re dirty and I want to push you further.” She said she responded, “I think you pushed me far enough – you treated me like an animal,” to which Brand allegedly responded, “I’m sorry.”
The prosecution added that when questioned about the incident, Brand provided a prepared statement to police. “He stated that he never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity and that any accounts were re-invented or imagined after a defamatory documentary and subsequent news articles,” Karmy-Jomes said.
The sixth woman alleges that Brand asked her for a massage while she was on assignment in 2009. “She said no, and they said she had to do it,” Karmy-Jones said, according to BBC News, referring to Brand and others with him. She touched his shoulders and said he was “really bony”, which made the others laugh with him and made Brand “irritable and obstructive”. She filed a complaint and “it moved further up the ladder,” the prosecution said, but ultimately it was “not taken seriously.” She then officially reported the incident again to work in 2023 and then to the police.
The defense will present its arguments later in the trial, which is expected to last six weeks.
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