A woman who claims to have been raped by Russell Brand has told a court she feared he had "tracked her down" during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Brand, 51, is accused of raping the woman after meeting her at one of his Hammersmith Apollo gigs in 2009. She told Southwark Crown Court that she willingly engaged in a threesome with him backstage and went to his Hampstead townhouse for sex a few days later.
However, she claims that during the second encounter he turned a consensual sexual encounter into rape by forcing her into anal sex and ignoring her pleas for him to stop.
Witness describes alleged victim's distress
Following the alleged attack, the woman's friend told the court today, October 22, she had been with her at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where Brand had also been in attendance.
Talking about what the woman told her about the alleged rape, she said: "She said she felt humiliated, scared and violated, and in a lot of physical pain."
She said that when Brand went to the festival, he was "flamboyant" and had "announced that he had arrived". The witness said the woman's face was as "white as a sheet" and she was concerned that Brand had "tracked her down".
She said that Brand sent the complainant messages, telling the court: "He really wanted to see her again and have sex." She added that the messages were of a "crude" and "sexual" nature.
Ex-boyfriend's evidence
Under cross-examination from Brand's barrister Ian Winter KC, the woman's ex-boyfriend told the court the alleged rape victim was "very upset" whenever she talked about her encounter with Brand.
He said: "It was something she didn't want to talk about. She characterised it as an assault."
In his statement, the ex-boyfriend set out: "In conversations with her, [she] believed some of her physical interactions with Russell were regarded as rape. I think she used the term rape."
When asked about messages she had received from Brand while at the Edinburgh Festival, he told the court: "She didn't want to receive them, she didn't know how to deal with them, she wanted them to go away."
Impact on alleged victim
The court further heard that the woman went from being a "bright, bubbly and confident girl" to battling alcoholism and mental health struggles.
The woman's friend told jurors: "This experience definitely changed her." She added: "It's like she lost respect for herself after that day, she blames herself for what happened."
She said she accompanied her friend to a meeting with a Sunday Times journalist when she was considering speaking out about Brand, but told the court she was trying to go sober and battling mental health difficulties at the time.
She said: "She is a vulnerable person. Her mental health was not great, she was in early recovery."
Earlier, friends and family of the woman gave evidence that she did not go to police at the time of the incident because she "didn't think she would be believed".
The court heard her mother remembered hearing her daughter describe "screaming out in pain" while telling Brand to stop, while her father told her: "That is rape".
A friend also 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."
Trial continues
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.
In the second encounter, she claims Brand forced her to shower and brush her teeth before sex, and she says he forced her into anal sex despite her making it clear she did not want to. Brand denies all the charges he faces, and says all sexual encounters were consensual but have since been "reimagined" by his accusers.
Mr Justice Bennathan sent jurors away until Monday, when the prosecution is expected to close its case. Brand's defence case is due to start on Tuesday morning.
