{"id":659458,"date":"2026-10-19T15:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T15:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/659458\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T15:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T15:46:08","slug":"russell-brand-had-maniacal-grin-as-he-dragged-woman-into-toilet-and-raped-her-court-told-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/659458\/","title":{"rendered":"Russell Brand had \u2018maniacal grin\u2019 as he dragged woman into toilet and raped her, court told \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russell Brand<\/a> had a \u201cweird maniacal\u201d grin on his face like a clown when he grabbed a woman\u2019s breasts before dragging her into a toilet and raping her, a court has heard.<\/p>\n

The 51-year-old comedian is accused of orally raping the MTV worker as he told her: \u201cYou want to do this,\u201d and: \u201cCome on, don\u2019t be a spoilsport.\u201d<\/p>\n

The woman said she was shaking and \u201cnumb\u201d after the assault at a birthday party at a bar in Soho, London, 2004.<\/p>\n

Brand faces three charges of rape, three of sexual assault and one of indecent assault against six women, in allegations spanning 10 years from 1999 to 2009. He denies all the charges and has pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n

The TV personality sat still and upright in the dock on Monday as the woman\u2019s pre-recorded police interview was played to jurors at Southwark crown court.<\/p>\n

She told detectives she found Brand funny on Big Brother spin-off shows on Channel 4, but that he sexually assaulted her within a minute of meeting her at the bar.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cHe literally just grabbed my boobs, out of nowhere, just in the middle of a conversation and I just remember this weird maniacal grin, looming in front of me as he just grabbed my boobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was completely in shock and was like: \u2018What the hell are you doing? I\u2019ve literally just met you.\u2019 Then literally he grabbed my arm and dragged me into the toilets.\u201d<\/p>\n

She broke down in tears as she recounted how, within seconds, Brand allegedly orally raped her in the toilet as she told him: \u201cWhat are you doing? I don\u2019t want to do this\u201d<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cI pushed him away and said: \u2018Come on, come on, don\u2019t be a spoilsport.\u2019 He kept pushing my head down and wouldn\u2019t let me go. I just froze. I didn\u2019t know what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said she closed her eyes during the alleged attack and remembered a man knocking on the toilet door saying: \u201cAre you OK?\u201d before she walked out in a daze.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember this really, really clearly \u2013 he turned to me and went: \u2018Oh, I guess we should swap numbers now\u2019, like it was just all normal, like he hadn\u2019t just forced me to do that,\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n

The woman alleged she then recalled being \u201csteered\u201d into Brand\u2019s car before the comedian\u2019s driver ferried them to a different bar in Camden.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in disbelief and shock and I felt this nudge and I looked around and he [Brand] had penis out again in the car and he was going \u2018come on, come on, suck it\u2019 and I was just like \u2018no\u2019. He took \u2018no\u2019 for an answer then.\u201d<\/p>\n

The woman said she told a friend Brand had attempted to rape her but did not tell him the full extent of what had happened, telling police: \u201cI just felt this shame that I allowed him to do that to me. I just didn\u2019t want to admit it to myself, not to anyone, but it had happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Days later she told another colleague part of what had happened and told them Brand was a \u201csexual predator\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said 2023 media reports about Brand\u2019s alleged sexual misconduct led her to come forward to police, telling the officer: \u201cSeeing it all in the press has made me relive it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

In cross-examination, Brand\u2019s barrister, Ian Winter KC, suggested the woman had \u201chappily accompanied\u201d Brand to the toilets and that she had been excited and charmed to meet him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was not charmed in the slightest. I\u2019d met this person for a minute before I was sexually assaulted,\u201d she replied.<\/p>\n

The trial continues. – Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russell Brand had a \u201cweird maniacal\u201d grin on his face like a clown when he grabbed a woman\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":659459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1795,93,61,60,109394,1577],"class_list":["post-659458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-channel-4","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-russell-brand","tag-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}