Updated at\u00a005.51 EDT<\/p>\n
Key events<\/p>\n
Alleged victim said Brand ‘grabbed her by the face with both hands’ during assault, court hears<\/p>\n
The court is told about the fourth complainant, a woman who was in her 20s and working at a radio station in 2004 or 2005 when Brand allegedly sexually assaulted her.<\/p>\n
After she had left a room while at work, Brand \u201cinstantly grabbed her by the face with both hands\u201d and \u201cpushed her up against a wall, where he kissed her \u2018sloppily and aggressively\u2019\u201d, Karmy-Jones told jurors.<\/p>\n
She continued:<\/p>\n
double quotation markDuring this assault he also grabbed her body, at her breasts, sides and buttocks aggressively.<\/p>\n
She tried to push him off, but he was too strong \u2026 it was rough, fast and frenzied.\u201d<\/p>\n
Karmy-Jones added:<\/p>\n
double quotation markWhile this was happening, she looked to the woman that he was with, hoping she would intervene but neither the men or the woman did anything.<\/p>\n
She finally managed to push him away, saying words to him to the effect of \u2018fuck off\u2019.<\/p>\n
Mr Brand stumbled backwards at that final push and just sniggered \u2013 like it was a joke.\u201d<\/p>\n
Share<\/a>Brand told alleged victim ‘don’t be a spoilsport’, prosecutor says<\/p>\n Taking jurors through the third allegation, Karmy-Jones said Brand pulled another woman into a toilet during an incident at a bar in Soho in 2004.<\/p>\n The third complainant was \u201cnot so lucky as to be able to pull away\u201d, the prosecutor said.<\/p>\n The court heard Brand \u201cgrabbed her arm and held her quite strongly and pulled her into the lavatory\u201d where he allegedly orally raped her.<\/p>\n Karmy-Jones told jurors that the woman said: \u201cWhat are you doing? I don\u2019t want to do this,\u201d to which Brand replied: \u201c\u2018Oh come on, don\u2019t be a spoilsport. You want to,\u2019 or something along those lines.\u201d<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a006.41 EDT<\/p>\n The prosecution outlined the second allegation against Brand, involving a woman who worked at MTV at the time of the alleged incident in 2001.<\/p>\n The court heard that the woman offered to show Brand where the toilets were, when he allegedly told her, \u201cCome in, go on, come in,\u201d and \u201cgrabbed her hard by her forearm\u201d.<\/p>\n Karmy-Jones told jurors the alleged victim \u201cresisted by struggling and pulling back\u201d.<\/p>\n double quotation markShe continued to resist saying, \u2018I\u2019m not coming in there, don\u2019t be silly. Are you mad? Get off,\u2019 and she managed to pull herself away, and to release his grasp.<\/p>\n At that point he gave up and went into the toilet, and she left the area.\u201d<\/p>\n The woman felt \u201cbewildered and shocked\u201d by the alleged assault, jurors were told.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a006.43 EDT<\/p>\n Brand was ‘prancing around’ like Basil Fawlty before alleged rape in hotel room, court hears<\/p>\n Continuing with the first alleged victim, Karmy-Jones said the woman met Brand at a fringe event at the Labour party conference where he was performing, and that they had engaged in a conversation that later continued in a hotel room.<\/p>\n The complainant, who was in her 20s at the time, said when she came out of the bathroom at her hotel room, Brand was topless, the court heard.<\/p>\n Karmy-Jones went on:<\/p>\n double quotation markAs she came out of the bathroom he was prancing around the room \u2013 a bit like an ostrich, doing silly walks like Basil Fawlty, she said.<\/p>\n She was taken aback, she was shocked, she didn\u2019t really know what to do \u2013 and in her words she froze.<\/p>\n She asked him why he had taken his clothes off, and he said something along the lines of \u2018It\u2019s OK, it\u2019s just how I am, don\u2019t worry \u2026 I\u2019m mostly naked at home.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The court heard how Brand allegedly raped the woman, who said she was \u201cdrifting out of her head\u201d during the alleged attack, and that he later \u201cbehaved as if nothing had happened\u201d.<\/p>\n Karmy-Jones said the alleged victim was \u201cleft in shock\u201d, \u201ccrying\u201d and feeling \u201cashamed\u201d, \u201cdirty\u201d and \u201cstupid\u201d.<\/p>\n She added: \u201cThroughout, she felt it was her fault. She almost chastised herself for inviting him back to her room.\u201d<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a006.46 EDT<\/p>\n Karmy-Jones turned to the first allegation against Brand, in which he is alleged to have raped a woman in a hotel room during a Labour party conference in Bournemouth in 1999.<\/p>\n She told the court a witness named Mark Pinheiro said he recalled that Brand was \u201cdesperate\u201d to have sex before they left the conference.<\/p>\n double quotation markAs you will hear, the defendant did achieve his objective.<\/p>\n He found a victim, engaged with her, told her \u2018exactly what she needed to hear\u2019, and then manipulated the situation so as to have sex with her.\u201d<\/p>\n The court heard Brand had burst into a flat the morning after the alleged rape in Bournemouth and told the group he was with to \u201cpack up their stuff\u201d and that they \u201chad to leave town immediately\u201d. Karmy-Jones said:<\/p>\n double quotation markOnce in the car, the defendant behaved oddly, shrinking down in the back seat to hide his head beneath the window.<\/p>\n When pressed about where he had been the night before, and why they had to leave so abruptly, he said he had forgotten he had an audition.\u201d<\/p>\n Brand would later admit to Pinheiro that it was not an audition but that he had had sex with a woman in Bournemouth the night before their hasty departure, telling him that things \u201cmight have got a little out of hand\u201d, Karmy-Jones told jurors.<\/p>\n Court artist sketch from Monday of prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones speaking as Russell Brand appears in the dock. Photograph: Elizabeth Cook\/PAShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a006.13 EDT<\/p>\n The prosecution cited remarks made by Brand\u2019s friends during the early years of his career, including one who described the comedian as someone who \u201cwas rampant in his desire to have sex\u201d.<\/p>\n Another friend, speaking about Brand before he found fame, described him as \u201cvery impulsive. His impulsivity led him to be very single-minded, and women and sex were a goal and an obsession,\u201d Karmy-Jones told the court.<\/p>\n She told jurors that these comments would provide an insight into what Brand was like in his former years.<\/p>\n She said: \u201cThis is important because what you must bear in mind in this case is that, although you\u2019re sat as jurors in Southwark crown court on October 14 2026 listening to my opening address, you will be considering offences that took place between around 27 and 17 years ago, when the defendant was aged roughly between 24-33.<\/p>\n \u201cSo the man who you will be considering in this trial is not the Mr Brand who is sitting in the dock, who is now 51.\u201d<\/p>\n She added that while Brand may have changed both physically and as a person in the years since that \u201chis responsibility for wrongs done, crimes committed at a younger age remain the same\u201d.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a005.52 EDT<\/p>\n Brand was ‘ruthless, calculated and manipulative’, court hears<\/p>\n Karmy-Jones said the allegations \u201cpunctuate\u201d 10 years of Brand\u2019s life when \u201chis career was beginning to flourish\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cHis public profile was taking off as he was progressing from doing gigs as a standup comedian at pubs and clubs to a TV presenter, an actor and Hollywood movie star,\u201d she told jurors.<\/p>\n She added that the circumstances of the alleged offences were \u201cas wide and as varied as the defendant\u2019s career\u201d, and that the offending took place in a number of locations including a hotel room, workplaces, a toilet cubicle in a bar and at his home address.<\/p>\n Continuing her opening statement, Karmy-Jones said:<\/p>\n double quotation markSome of the women involved protested and said no, others had no opportunity to react to his advances but it mattered not to the defendant.<\/p>\n Regardless of who they were and what they said or did, Russell Brand was not deterred.<\/p>\n His desire, strong desire for some form of sexual contact, was indiscriminate and voracious. He would be nice when he wanted to be, funny \u2013 undoubtedly \u2013 charming, likable even \u2013 when he wanted something in return \u2013 but then demanding, entitled, a flirt with a huge sexual appetite, childlike in his expectation that his every desire should be met.<\/p>\n He was ruthless, calculated and manipulative, and, the prosecution say, a sexual predator.\u201d<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a005.51 EDT<\/p>\n Prosecution outlines charges against Russell Brand as trial begins<\/p>\n Prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones has begun proceedings by outlining the charges against Russell Brand to the court.<\/p>\n She told jurors:<\/p>\n double quotation markRussell Brand, as you may know, and if you didn\u2019t know before this trial, is a celebrity.<\/p>\n He was born on June 4 1975 making him now 51 years old.<\/p>\n He is here as he has been charged with a number of sexual offences including rape and sexual assault as you heard, those offences were committed against six different women between approximately 1999 and 2009.<\/p>\n Six different women, six women who did not know each other then and do not know each other now, who have never met each other, and who came forward independently of each other.<\/p>\n Their paths all crossed the defendant\u2019s either through their employment, social events or through attending gigs where he was performing.\u201d<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Brand was driven to the court in a black Mercedes-Benz van, which parked directly outside the court building, where crowds of reporters and photographers had gathered for his trial.<\/p>\n Brand waited inside the vehicle for around a minute before stepping out, wearing a dark suit, a black-and-white striped shirt, a long white tie and sunglasses. He reached out for his wife\u2019s hand before the pair walked together towards the court.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a005.23 EDT<\/p>\n Brand arrives at court Russell Brand spoke to the media as he arrived at court this morning, saying he was feeling \u201cconcerned but hopeful\u201d.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cToday I feel blessed, I feel of course concerned but hopeful that this process will lead to good outcomes for everybody involved.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s my prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Emine](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Emine_Sinmaz_v2.png\")
Emine Sinmaz<\/p>\n