{"id":648249,"date":"2026-10-16T13:50:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T13:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/648249\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T13:50:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T13:50:19","slug":"egotistical-russell-brand-preoccupied-by-sex-former-flatmate-tells-trial-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/648249\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Egotistical\u2019 Russell Brand preoccupied by sex, former flatmate tells trial \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russell Brand<\/a> had a \u201chuge preoccupation\u201d with sex and spent most nights out looking for women to sleep with, his former flatmate told a court on Friday.<\/p>\n

Andrew Dobson called Brand \u201cvery egotistical\u201d and \u201cerratic\u201d as he recalled their time together as part of a theatrical troupe, then flatmates, in the late 1990s.<\/p>\n

He told Southwark Crown Court: \u201cHe was a very vibrant character, very egotistical I would say, lively, sort of quite demanding and persuading.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would also say I used to find him, I think, erratic might be a slightly better term. Hard to predict.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked to describe Brand\u2019s general behaviour on social occasions, he said: \u201cI think sex was a huge preoccupation for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do recall clearly nights where the pursuit of ultimately getting somebody into bed would have been a preoccupation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brand is on trial accused of three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault, and one count of indecent assault, with allegations from six women dating from 1999 to 2009.<\/p>\n

In 1999, the comedian is accused of raping a woman he had met after performing in a satirical cabaret show at the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth.<\/p>\n

Dobson, who composed the music for the show, said their final show ended calamitously with a small fire on stage, which \u201calmost summed up the week a bit\u201d after a series of sparsely populated audiences.<\/p>\n

He remembers the troupe returning to their accommodation without Brand, who reappeared the following morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI recall Russell coming in and there suddenly being an urgency to leave\u201d, he said, describing the \u201churried\u201d manner that they left the accommodation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI only remember the atmosphere and almost a panicked urgency and it feeling tense and confusing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t really understand why.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the woman who has accused Brand of rape at the conference that year gave evidence that he had turned \u201cmonster-like\u201d and forced her down on to a bed, and afterwards acted as if nothing had happened.<\/p>\n

She said they had a friendly chat at the show, when she mistakenly believed he was gay, and she invited him to her hotel room to continue their conversation.<\/p>\n

Statements from two friends of the woman were also read to the court on Friday by prosecutor Suki Dhadda, detailing when they were told about the allegation of rape.<\/p>\n

One, a journalist, said she got a phone call \u201cout of the blue\u201d from the woman in 2023 after Brand had been publicly accused of sexual misconduct in a TV documentary and newspaper articles.<\/p>\n

The journalist said in her statement: \u201cShe told me she went to the bathroom, and when she returned Russell Brand was in his underwear.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was completely shocked and told me he had made me take photographs of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA photo released by London’s Metropolitan Police shows British comedian Russell Brand. Photograph: Metropolitan Police\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

She added: \u201cIt was then I was told by her she was raped by Russell Brand.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe said she was utterly confused as she thought he was gay and being friendly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second friend said she learned about the allegation in a WhatsApp message in December 2024, when the woman said of Brand: \u201cEveryone seems to think he\u2019s amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brand denies all the charges he faces, and is set to argue that consensual sexual encounters have been \u201creimagined\u201d in recent years.<\/p>\n

As he arrived at court on Friday morning with his wife Laura Gallacher, Brand told waiting journalists: \u201cObviously it\u2019s an extraordinary and stressful situation but it is also an exploration of truth and justice and as I\u2019ve said before I pray for everybody involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s in a way very, very sad but hopefully it can bring about some conclusions that are beneficial.\u201d<\/p>\n

He faces allegations that he raped a woman in a Soho bar toilet, sexually assaulted women he came across in radio and TV studios, and allegedly raped a woman after they met at one of his stand-up shows.<\/p>\n

The trial continues. \u2013 PA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russell Brand had a \u201chuge preoccupation\u201d with sex and spent most nights out looking for women to sleep…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,85,46,191951,443],"class_list":["post-648249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-russell-brand","tag-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}