A woman who says Russell Brand raped her at a Labour Party conference has told a court she was left feeling “dirty” and afraid she may be pregnant in the aftermath of the alleged attack.
The woman broke down in tears as she recalled feeling “frightened” of Brand when they were alone together in a hotel room in 1999, and said afterwards she felt the alleged rape was her fault.
Alleged attack at Bournemouth conference
Brand, 51, was performing at a cabaret show at the 1999 conference in Bournemouth when he met the woman and went back to her hotel room, Southwark Crown Court has heard.
She told police she thought Brand was gay – and did not pose a threat – when they first met, and she claims he stripped off their clothes and forced her into sex when they got to the hotel.
“He knew exactly what he was doing”, she told police, in a video recorded interview played in court. “He wanted to have sex that night and I was there.”
Woman describes aftermath and fears
She recalled being “frightened” and thinking “what on earth have I got into” when a shirtless Brand made her take photos of him before the alleged attack.
She broke down in tears as she recalled the aftermath. “It made me feel so dirty and I thought it was my fault… but in those days it was your fault, it was always your fault.” She added that she was “having nightmares” about the possibility of being pregnant.
The woman told police she kept quiet about the incident for years as she saw Brand becoming “more and more famous”.
Encounter details and court proceedings
The court heard Brand was part of a comedy troupe putting on a show at the Bournemouth conference in September 1999. The woman told police she went to the show and recalls being in a telephone booth at the venue when “somebody started pulling my hair”. She said: “Basically it was Russell Brand, he was doing it while I was on the phone.”
She recalls Brand telling her “I have been looking for you”, and she said: “I think he grabbed me from behind, like ‘boo’. He was very childish, he was very playful – I didn’t feel threatened by him.”
She spoke to Brand, they agreed to stage a play together, and eventually she suggested they go back to her hotel to continue their conversation after they had “chatted for hours”. She said she believed the comedian was “gay” and that it did not feel like he was “trying it on with me”.
At the hotel room Brand went to the bathroom and had removed his top when he returned, she said. The woman said she was “taken aback” and “shocked” as Brand was “prancing around” and “sitting on the bed”. She told police: “I remember him being like an ostrich – like a bird because he was very leggy. I wasn’t laughing, I just remember him jumping up and down being silly.”
She added: “Almost like Fawlty Towers-esque, like Basil Fawlty when he does his goose steps.” She said she “froze a bit”, but Brand told her of his state of undress “it’s OK, its just how I am, don’t worry…. I’m mostly naked at home”.
Describing the alleged rape, she said: “He pushed me onto the bed. He did take my trousers off.” She said she “drifted out of my head” during the alleged attack, she recalled his “lizard-like” tongue, and told police: “I just remember him on me, really heavy, and me trying not to let him.”
She added: “I couldn’t get out of the situation – do I shout, do I scream? It didn’t take long, I just know it was quick.”
Afterwards, she said Brand appeared to not think anything was wrong, he dressed and wrote down his email address. She also remembered Brand saying he “had to get back to his mum”, and told the police officer: “I think he was trying to show me he was a family guy.”
She recalled crying afterwards, and said she “chose to suppress it”. “I didn’t want any of this to be in the public domain,” she added.
The woman said a 2023 Dispatches documentary about allegations of sexual misconduct by Brand “triggered” her to go to police.
Prosecution case and trial continues
Opening the case against Brand on Wednesday, prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones KC called him a “sexual predator” who was “ruthless, calculated and manipulative” towards women.
A woman who says she was raped at Brand’s Hampstead home in 2009 says the star treated her “like an animal”. Some of the alleged victims say Brand laughed at them after an attack, while his entourage have been accused of not intervening to stop women being groped. One of his accusers says she was raped in a Soho bar toilet, while another alleges she was sexually assaulted after being forced to give him a massage during filming for a Channel 4 project.
Brand’s former flatmate Mark Pinheiro told jurors on Wednesday afternoon that he recalled the comedian “boasting” about sex and having an ambition to sleep with 5,000 women.
Ms Karmy-Jones said during her opening that Brand is expected to argue that sex was always consensual, and he will suggest that his accusers have “reimagined” their encounters with him.
At the start of Thursday’s court hearing, Mr Justice Bennathan told the jury they would not be watching the Dispatches documentary on Brand because it “would not be fair”.
Brand denies all the charges – three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault, and one count of indecent assault. The trial continues.
