A Channel 4 worker has told Southwark Crown Court that she felt "repulsed" after being forced to massage Russell Brand, who thrust his head into her lap during a recording for a Channel 4 project in 2009.
The woman testified that members of Brand's entourage shrugged and laughed when the alleged sexual assault occurred. She described Brand as "really lovely" at the start of the session, but said he grew annoyed as the day progressed.
Massage demand during recording
According to her testimony, Brand's associates Jack Bayles and Gareth Roy told her that Brand would only continue with the recording if she gave him a massage. She told the jury it became "clear that he was quite unhappy about things" and the "atmosphere changed" in the studio.
"They said Russell won't carry on … unless you give him a massage," she recounted. When asked how she responded, she said: "I didn't want to give him a massage, I actually laughed. I thought they were joking because I didn't expect somebody to say that. Then I saw by their faces that they weren't joking."
The woman said Brand "leaned into my lap – my groin area", adding: "I could feel his breath against me." She looked to Mr Bayles and Mr Roy, "hoping someone was going to help me", but they responded with "arms up, as if to say: 'Come on.' They were shrugging and gesticulating, to say: 'Are you going to do it?'"
Offensive comments and aftermath
She described thinking: "Oh my god, I have got to do this", and placed her fingers on Brand's shoulders. "I was so repulsed by the situation and my automatic reaction was: 'Urgh, you're so bony,'" she added. The woman said Mr Bayles and Mr Roy "laughed", but in a quieter voice she noted: "Russell didn't laugh."
Brand allegedly made offensive comments, suggesting that he and Mr Roy had been "wanting to know: is it a girl or a boy?" He then walked to the other side of the room and joked about a calculator drinking from a glass of water. "It was just a bit of a charade, just a change of tune, and then he said: 'Right, are we going to get on with this… or not?'" she told the court.
The woman reported the incident the following day to her line manager at Channel 4, and believes it was passed on to the head of her department.
Another allegation and trial details
Earlier, another woman gave evidence that Brand sexually assaulted her in a radio station corridor, pressing her against a wall and planting "sloppy" kisses. She tearfully told the court she had nothing to gain from giving evidence against Brand, and recalls pleading with people around him to intervene but getting no help.
"There was a culture of fear," she said, describing the atmosphere as "people-pleasing". "Russell Brand was an A-lister star, it was Big Brother, people were watching it, we all watched it."
She also criticised workplace "banter" from the 2000s, telling the court: "Women were rated by colleagues on what we were wearing, how we looked. It wasn't an environment where management were coming to talk to us about workplace behaviour, that didn't exist." She added that reporting to a manager would likely have drawn the response: "Oh, you're lucky."
Brand denies three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault, and one allegation of indecent assault. The trial continues.
