Photographs taken inside Russell Brand's former home on Gardnor Road in Hampstead, north London, have been released by the Metropolitan Police and shown to the jury at Southwark Crown Court in the comedian and actor's rape trial. A woman alleges Brand raped her at the three-storey townhouse in 2009, when he was 33 and she was 21.
Woman describes being driven to the property
The woman recalled in court on Tuesday, 20 October, that Brand's chauffeur drove her to the property in the Hampstead Village enclave. In her police interview, she described the home's black and grey décor and recalled "dark features" inside it. She remembered Brand having "black loo roll" and agreed with the police officer's suggestion that it was "distinctive".
"It was very unusual", she said, adding that the "bed was enormous".
Images of living room, bedroom and bathrooms
The photographs shown to the jury revealed a stag's skull mounted above the fireplace in the living room and the bed in the bedroom. A picture of the bedroom showed a black framed full-length mirror, a framed crucifix over the bed and a hanging chandelier. Images of Brand's living room, kitchen, bedroom and bathrooms were shown, as well as photographs of the outside of the townhouse.
Account of the alleged encounter
The woman said she had a consensual threesome with Brand backstage after a Hammersmith Apollo stand-up performance. She later agreed to go to his home and expected to have sex, but said the consensual encounter became rape when he started having anal sex without warning.
She told police that Brand told her to shower when she first arrived at his home, and said in her interview that she recalled the comedian forcing her to shower because he said her hair smelled "funny". She recalled Brand watching her shower, as if he was monitoring her, and said she had to try to keep her face away from the water because she had just put on fresh make-up.
She added that a "toothbrush was already laid out" for her and that Brand told her to brush her teeth. "I was 21 at the time," the woman said. "No one had ever asked me to shower or brush my teeth. It made me feel dirty."
