Russell Brand was a ruthless, calculated and manipulative sexual predator who boasted about wanting to have sex with ۵,۰۰۰ women, a court has heard.
The ۵۱-year-old comedian is alleged to have had an “insatiable desire” to get what he wanted and treated women as a means to an end, jurors were told.
He is accused of ignoring one woman’s pleas to stop raping her in an assault that left her bleeding and in pain. He is also alleged to have raped another woman as he told her: “Oh come on, don’t be a spoilsport.”
Brand faces three charges of rape, three of sexual assault and one of indecent assault against six women, in allegations spanning ۱۰ years from ۱۹۹۹ to ۲۰۰۹. He denies all the charges.
Wearing a black pinstripe suit, white shirt and a necktie, Brand stood in the dock at Southwark crown court in London on Wednesday as the prosecution opened its case.
The prosector, Riel Karmy-Jones KC, told jurors: “The circumstances of the offending were as wide and as varied as the defendant’s career. Offending took place in a number of locations: a hotel room, workplaces, a toilet cubicle in a bar and at his home address.
“Some of the women involved protested and said no, others had no opportunity to protest and no opportunity to react to his advances but that didn’t matter to the defendant. Regardless of who they were and what they said or did, Russell Brand was not deterred.
“His desire, strong desire, for some form of sexual contact was indiscriminate and voracious. He could be nice when he wanted to be – funny undoubtedly, charming, likable 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.
“He was ruthless, he was calculated and manipulative, and the prosecution say, he was a sexual predator.”
The prosecutor said Brand had told a friend he wanted to bed ۵,۰۰۰ women in his lifetime and had rules to achieve that aim, such as “all you have to do is tell them what they need to hear” and “never leave an opportunity without a score”.
The court heard the earliest allegation dated back to the Labour party conference in Bournemouth in ۱۹۹۹, when Brand was not yet famous. He allegedly raped a woman at a hotel after meeting her at a fringe event where he was performing.
“She remembers the weight of him on top of her, she couldn’t move, she was finding it hard to breathe, but she recalls trying not to let him kiss her, and saying ‘no’,” the prosecutor said. “She knows that he groped her, was touching her, he grabbed her breasts, he was trying to kiss her, he was putting his fingers in her mouth and doing things with his tongue that were horrible, like a lizard.”
Brand allegedly raped her without a condom, before telling her: “Don’t worry, I get tested regularly for STDs, I don’t have anything.” He then behaved as if nothing had happened, wrote down his email address, and said he had to get back to his mother.
He denied the allegation in a prepared statement to police, saying he had had sexual encounters in countless locations and scenarios, often with people he had just met.
Brand’s celebrity status was growing by the time of the second allegation in ۲۰۰۱, as was his “sense of entitlement to have what he wanted whenever he wanted it,” the prosecutor said.
The second complainant was working at MTV when she offered to show Brand to the toilets where he allegedly indecently assaulted her. Brand is accused of grabbing the woman by the forearm and trying to pull her into the male toilets. He had what she described as a desperate, wild-eyed look on his face, as he said: “Please, please come in – oh go on.”
She was shocked and mentioned what had happened when she returned from the toilet but never formally reported it.
The third woman had attended a friend’s birthday at a bar in Soho in London in ۲۰۰۴ when Brand sexually assaulted her by grabbing and squeezing her breasts with a “big, weird grin” on his face. He then grabbed her arm and pulled her into the toilets where he orally raped her. The prosecutor said: “As she was saying: ‘What are you doing? I don’t want to do this.’ He just said: ‘Oh come on don’t be a spoilsport, you want to.’”
The fourth woman was working at a radio station when she said Brand “sloppily and aggressively” kissed her and grabbed her breasts and buttocks in a sexual assault alleged to have taken place in ۲۰۰۴ or ۲۰۰۵.
She pushed him away and told him to “fuck off” to which Brand sniggered. “These women meant nothing to him and perhaps he found their protestations amusing, funny?” the prosecutor said.
The fifth complainant was a fan of Brand and had gone with a friend to see the comedian perform at the Hammersmith Apollo in London in ۲۰۰۹. According to the woman’s friend, at the end of the show, Brand said: “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.” He said his age range was “from ۱۶ to death”.
After the show, the woman was invited backstage and later to his dressing room, where she refused to have sex with Brand. But she did perform oral sex on him before giving him her telephone number and leaving.
At a later date, she was driven to Brand’s house, where they had consensual sex before he anally raped her in an attack that left her bleeding for a few days, the court heard.
The prosecutor said the woman could not speak through the pain. “She asked him to stop, at first quietly and then louder, a number of times, begging. He did not,” Karmy-Jones said. He then ordered her to “clean up the mess you have made”.
Brand texted the woman the following year after seeing each other in a chance encounter in Scotland. She said she messaged Brand: “Why are you even messaging me?”, and he replied: “Because you’re dirty, and I wanna push you further.”
The court heard she says she replied: “I think you pushed me far enough – you treated me like an animal”, and she says Brand replied: “I’m sorry.”
The woman, the prosecutor said, spent years blaming herself for what had happened, and became extremely anxious and unwell.
The final alleged victim was working at Channel ۴ in ۲۰۰۹ when she alleges that Brand sexually assaulted her by placing his head in her groin area. She told her manager about the attack but she felt her complaint was not taken seriously.
Karmy-Jones said that Brand had given prepared statements in police interviews, denying all the allegations. He said he had never engaged in nonconsensual sexual activity, and any accounts had been reinvented or imagined after a documentary about Brand.
Brand’s wife, Laura Gallacher, sat through the evidence on Wednesday morning. Earlier, the pair arrived at court to a crowd of reporters and photographers. “I feel blessed,” Brand told a journalist. “I feel of course concerned but hopeful that this process will lead to good outcomes for everybody involved. That’s my prayer.”
Brand became a British television personality in the ۲۰۰۰s, presenting shows such as Big Brother’s Big Mouth and events including the Brit awards, Comic Relief and the MTV video music awards. He also hosted his own show on BBC Radio ۲.
He made the move into Hollywood films with roles in the comedy Get Him to the Greek and the ۲۰۱۲ musical comedy Rock of Ages. He was married to the American pop singer Katy Perry from ۲۰۱۰ to ۲۰۱۲.
The trial before judge Mr Justice Bennathan continues.
