Friends and family of a woman who accuses Russell Brand of rape have told a court that she did not go to police at the time because she "didn't think she would be believed".
Brand, now 51, is accused of raping a 21-year-old fan after meeting her at one of his Hammersmith Apollo gigs in 2009. Southwark Crown Court heard evidence from friends of the alleged victim who were told at the time that Brand, a star of British TV and Hollywood films, had forced her into having anal sex at the end of an encounter that started off consensually.
Friend says she was urged to contact police
One of the woman's friends said she told her to go to the police, but she "felt it wasn't worth it".
She told the jury: "She didn't think she would be believed, and she didn't think it would be worth it to go. She kind of put it behind her."
A colleague of the woman recalled being told about the alleged rape by the "ashen-faced" woman, who told her she did not want to come forward at the time. "I said to her 'you've been raped', and she said 'nobody will believe me'", she said.
The colleague said the woman told her "they are going to think it's my fault", and she added: "She said 'I feel really bad, I feel really guilty'."
Brand denies all charges
Brand denies three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault, and one allegation of indecent assault, after being accused by six different women.
Jurors have heard he picked out the alleged rape victim in the foyer after the Apollo show, so that she and another woman could have a threesome with the comedian backstage. The woman told the court on Wednesday that she willingly engaged in the threesome, then agreed to go to Brand's home a few days later for consensual sex.
She says she said no to anal sex during the second encounter in his bedroom but alleges Brand did it anyway, pushing her down on the bed so that she struggled to breathe. "I did not consent to that," she told the jury during Wednesday's evidence.
Messages and a car sent to collect her
On Thursday morning, one of the woman's friends who was at the Apollo gig recalled her being "excited and flattered" by messages from Brand that she received from the comedian after the threesome. She told the court Brand "sent a car to collect her" and her friend recalled being told to wait in a room at Brand's home "until he was free to see her".
The friend said the alleged victim recalled Brand being "quite aggressive", and she told her of "forcibly" anal sex which "really, really hurt her" and Brand turning "really nasty" afterwards. "I asked if she was OK, I told her that was awful and I asked specifically 'did you say no?', and she said yes, lots of times."
The alleged victim had a boyfriend at the time, but their relationship ended after she confessed to the threesome with Brand on the night of the Apollo show. The court heard the woman went to stay with another friend after the relationship breakdown, and that friend remembers being told of Brand "pressing" the woman to come to his home.
She "eventually gave in" and agreed to go to Brand's home, but afterwards she told her friend that she had turned down anal sex but he forced her into it. "I told her it wasn't right and it was rape," the friend said, before recalling seeing the woman "on the bed with a hot water bottle laying all scrunched up".
Parents tell court of daughter's account
The alleged victim's parents also provided witness statements, setting out how their "very unwell" daughter came to stay with them for two months shortly after her encounters with Brand. Her father said his daughter told him: "They were having sex, she asked him to stop, she kept saying she had been assaulted."
He told the court in a statement: "I turned to her in the car and asked if she asked him to stop, and she said 'no' several times. I said 'you have been raped, that's rape'."
Her mother remembers her daughter saying Brand "didn't stop even when she screamed out in pain and asked him to stop". Another friend of the woman told the court she said Brand was "quite cold" and "keen to get her gone" after the alleged rape, while one of her work colleagues remembers advising her to go to the police.
She said: "I said to her you need to tell the police and she said 'no, they won't believe me, I went to the house'."
One of the woman's former boyfriends also told the court he was told about the alleged rape, telling the court she "didn't really want to talk about it, but she was incredibly clear about the event – the rape. That it was that, that it was rape and that she hated it."
Brand denies all the charges he faces, and says all sexual encounters were consensual but have since been "reimagined" by his accusers. The trial continues.
