A woman has told a court that Russell Brand had a “weird maniacal” grin, like a clown, when he grabbed her breasts before dragging her into a toilet and raping her. The 51-year-old comedian is on trial at Southwark crown court.
The woman, an MTV worker, alleges Brand orally raped her at a birthday party at a bar in Soho, London, in 2004, telling her: “You want to do this,” and: “Come on, don’t be a spoilsport.” She said she was shaking and “numb” after the alleged assault.
Brand faces 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 and has pleaded not guilty.
Pre-recorded police interview played to jurors
The TV personality sat still and upright in the dock on Monday as the woman’s pre-recorded police interview was played to jurors. She told detectives she found Brand funny on Big Brother spin-off shows on Channel 4, but that he sexually assaulted her within a minute of meeting her at the bar.
She said: “He literally just grabbed my boobs, out of nowhere, 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.
“I was completely in shock and was like: ‘What the hell are you doing? I’ve literally just met you.’ Then literally he grabbed my arm and dragged me into the toilets.”
Woman broke down in tears recounting toilet attack
She broke down in tears as she recounted how, within seconds, Brand allegedly orally raped her in a flooded toilet as she told him: “What are you doing? I don’t want to do this.”
She said: “I pushed him away and he said: ‘Come on, come on, don’t be a spoilsport.’ He kept pushing my head down and wouldn’t let me go. I just froze. I didn’t know what to do.”
She said she closed her eyes during the alleged attack and remembered a man knocking on the toilet door saying: “Are you OK?” before she walked out in a daze.
“I remember this really, really clearly – he turned to me and went: ‘Oh, I guess we should swap numbers now’, like it was just all normal, like he hadn’t just forced me to do that,” she recalled.
When she was asked to go over the alleged attack in more detail, the woman described how Brand had a “big grin … like a clown” and a “weird look” in his eye after he assaulted her at the bar. “There was no sexual flirting, it was just a normal conversation about him being on Big Brother,” she said.
Alleged incident in car and later disclosure
The woman alleged she then recalled being “steered” into Brand’s car before the comedian’s driver ferried them to a different bar in Camden.
“I was in disbelief and shock and I felt this nudge and I looked around and he [Brand] had penis out again in the car and he was going ‘come on, come on, suck it’ and I was just like ‘no’. He took ‘no’ for an answer then.”
The woman said she told a friend Brand had attempted to rape her but did not tell him the full extent of what had happened. She told police: “I just felt this shame that I allowed him to do that to me. I just didn’t want to admit it to myself, not to anyone, but it had happened.”
Days later she told another colleague part of what had happened and told them Brand was a “sexual predator”. She said 2023 media reports about Brand’s alleged sexual misconduct led her to come forward to police, telling the officer: “Seeing it all in the press has made me relive it all.”
Cross-examination challenges account
In cross-examination, Brand’s barrister, Ian Winter KC, suggested the woman had “happily accompanied” Brand to the toilets and that she had been excited and charmed to meet him.
“I was not charmed in the slightest. I’d met this person for a minute before I was sexually assaulted,” she replied.
The trial continues.
