Russell Brand transformed into a \u201cwild-eyed maniac\u201d when he tried to drag a woman into a men\u2019s toilets for a sexual encounter before she \u201cwrenched\u201d herself free, a court has heard.<\/p>\n
The 51-year-old comedian is accused of indecently assaulting the woman, who told Southwark crown court: \u201cI emerged relatively unscathed. He didn\u2019t manage to rape me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The woman, who was working for MTV at the time, said she did not report the incident then because she was \u201cscared\u201d as Brand was famous \u201cand a big asset\u201d to the TV channel.<\/p>\n
Brand is facing 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.<\/p>\n
Wearing a dark pinstripe suit, the TV personality sat bolt upright in the dock on Friday as the woman gave evidence from behind a screen.<\/p>\n
She said she was working at MTV in 2001 when she met Brand and they had \u201cbanter\u201d about an I Am Spartacus T-shirt he was wearing. She later offered to show him the way to the toilets, where he allegedly assaulted her.<\/p>\n
The woman said she felt \u201cbewildered and confused\u201d, telling the court: \u201cThis person went from someone jovial and friendly to suddenly turning into this wild-eyed maniac trying to pull me into the toilet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Detailing the alleged assault, she added: \u201cHis demeanour changed. He grabbed my forearm and he was leaning into the door. It was quite forceful, the grip. It took me unawares, I wasn\u2019t expecting that.\u201d<\/p>\n
In response to questions from the prosecutor, Riel Karmy-Jones KC, the woman said Brand began pleading with her to come into the toilets as she tried to get away.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said to him: \u2018What are you doing? Are you mad? Let me go.\u2019 Then he started to plead, almost \u2018go on, go on, come in\u2019,\u201d she told the court.<\/p>\n
She said he had a \u201cwild\u201d look in his eyes and she had to use her strength to escape his \u201chard\u201d grip in an interaction that lasted about 20 seconds.<\/p>\n
The woman said she told two colleagues what had happened but she did not make a police complaint until she saw a 2023 documentary that accused Brand of sexual misconduct.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt brought everything back,\u201d she said. \u201cI thought I\u2019d managed to get away. It could\u2019ve been very different \u2026 I thought it was the right thing to come forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
In cross-examination, the defence barrister, Ian Winter KC, suggested the woman had reassessed her memory of the incident after the documentary, but she said it had not changed her mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s quite as straightforward as that,\u201d she said. \u201cIt would have been my word against his, I had a job to consider, I emerged relatively unscathed. He didn\u2019t manage to rape me. I managed to get myself out of the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
She rejected the barrister\u2019s suggestion that Brand had \u201cinvited\u201d her into the toilet for a consensual sexual encounter. She said: \u201cYou don\u2019t drag someone by the arm, not in my world anyway. You don\u2019t grip someone to drag them in, that\u2019s not consensual.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said he had been \u201cgrabbing and pulling\u201d her, telling the court: \u201cThat\u2019s not inviting someone in. That\u2019s forcing someone to do something against their will.\u201d<\/p>\n
Winter suggested it was \u201ca short-lived, very, very minor incident\u201d and that after the woman declined, Brand \u201cleft it there\u201d. The woman responded: \u201cThe intent was there. It could have been very different.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier, the court heard evidence from witnesses relating to the first complainant, who gave evidence on Thursday. She alleges Brand raped her after a fringe cabaret show at the 1999 Labour party conference in Bournemouth.<\/p>\n
Andrew Dobson, a former flatmate of Brand\u2019s who composed the music for the show, described his impressions of the comedian, saying he was \u201ca very vibrant character, very egotistical \u2026 lively, sort of quite demanding and persuading\u201d.<\/p>\n
Dobson told the court: \u201cI think sex was a huge preoccupation for him. I do recall clearly nights where the pursuit of ultimately getting somebody into bed would have been a preoccupation.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said there was a \u201churried and rushed\u201d tone at their shared guesthouse in Bournemouth on the morning after their final show. \u201cI recall Russell coming in and there suddenly being an urgency to leave,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
John Rogers, who wrote the show, described Brand\u2019s reaction to an \u201cencounter\u201d the actor had had with a woman during the week of the conference, saying it was \u201ca bit odd\u201d and he appeared \u201cflustered\u201d.<\/p>\n
The court also heard statements from two women whom the first complainant had told about the alleged rape after the 2023 documentary.<\/p>\n
The trial continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russell Brand transformed into a \u201cwild-eyed maniac\u201d when he tried to drag a woman into a men\u2019s toilets…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":804702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-804701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/804702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}