{"id":807642,"date":"2026-10-19T14:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T14:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/807642\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T14:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T14:46:09","slug":"woman-says-she-closed-eyes-and-tried-not-to-be-there-during-alleged-russell-brand-rape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/807642\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman says she &#8216;closed eyes and tried not to be there&#8217; during alleged Russell Brand rape"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A woman who alleges she was raped by Russell Brand at a bar told the police &#8220;I just closed my eyes and tried not to be there&#8221; while the attack was taking place.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In a 2023 video interview with an officer shown to the jury at his trial, the woman said she had been speaking to Brand about him hosting the Channel 4 show Big Brother&#8217;s Big Mouth when he allegedly sexually assaulted her.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Brand, 51, faces seven charges in the trial &#8211; three counts of rape, three charges of sexual assault and one of indecent assault.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The allegations, made by six female complainants, span a 10-year period between 1999 and 2009. He denies the charges.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In her recorded interview with police, the woman said &#8220;he literally just grabbed my boobs out of nowhere in the middle of the conversation, 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.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A short while later, she said he &#8220;dragged me in the toilets&#8221; where the floor was flooded, before &#8220;he unzipped himself&#8221; and allegedly orally raped her.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The woman is the third complainant the jury have heard from in the trial &#8211; and the second to allege rape.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The pair had been attending a birthday party in Soho in London in 2004 when the alleged incidents happened.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">She said after the alleged sexual assault, &#8220;The visual I remember is just this big grin &#8211; it felt like a clown, (with) that sort of weird look in the eye. It was a normal conversation about him being on Big Brother. He just moved towards (me) and grabbed both my boobs&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">She said the alleged rape was &#8220;swift&#8221;, and left her &#8220;in disbelief and shock&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The toilets were behind where he stood. It was literally just grab and pull. He was holding me quite strongly on the arm and pulled me in that direction,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Part of me was saying just get it over with so you can get out of here&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I just closed my eyes and tried not to be there. I just remember it felt like a force. I definitely said I don&#8217;t want to do this,&#8221; she added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">After the alleged rape, the woman, who was in her 20s at the time, said Brand &#8220;turned to me and said &#8216;oh I guess we should swap numbers now&#8217;, like it was just all normal, like he hadn&#8217;t just forced me to do that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Russell Brand denies all the charges and has pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He has said that any sexual contact if it happened, would have been consensual.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The trial continues and is expected to last for six weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman who alleges she was raped by Russell Brand at a bar told the police &#8220;I just&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":807643,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-807642","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\/807642","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=807642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}