Russell Brand's fourth accuser has told a court he pinned her against a wall and forcibly kissed her at a radio station, describing the alleged assault as "violent", "sloppy" and "frenzied".
Giving evidence at Southwark Crown Court on October 20, the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, alleged Brand sexually assaulted her while she was working at Choice FM. She told jurors she believed Brand was at the station during the period he was presenting a Big Brother spin-off show on E4.
Accuser's account of the alleged assault
The woman told jurors that Brand appeared to find it funny after grabbing her breasts and forcefully kissing her. She said he "touched my bum" and "he touched my breast", adding that his "hands at that time were all over me".
Describing the incident, she said: "He was kissing me and he was pushing his body against me. It was hard, I would say it was sloppy. He was kissing me all down my neck. His hands at that time were all over me."
Asked about where his hands were, she said: "He touched my bum, he touched my breast, he had his hand on my waist and his other hand was just pinning me against the wall, and his body was just pressed up against me." She added: "The reason I used the word frenzied is because it was just, it was violent."
Witnesses 'did nothing' to intervene
The accuser told the court she was not alone during the alleged assault. Three men and a woman with Brand witnessed the incident and "did nothing", other than to laugh afterwards to "break the silence".
In tears, she told jurors: "I wonder why those people didn't do anything to stop him. I wonder if I was alone with him what would have happened. There is a man who is mauling me in front of people." She said she "locked eyes" with the other woman and was "pleading with her" to stop what was allegedly happening.
Reasons for not reporting the incident
Brand's barrister Ian Winter KC asked the accuser whether she had raised the incident with her employer. She replied: "I did not, no." When asked if she thought she had an obligation to raise it, she said there was "banter" in her workplace about women, adding: "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."
Asked why she did not go to the police, she said: "I didn't go to the police because as I said already, I would have thought about a few things, one, who's going to believe me, two, I could lose my job and I have a mortgage to pay. And as my mum would say, and you know what – I didn't even tell my mum because she's the kind of person who says 'you know what, it happened, move on'."
Trial background and ongoing proceedings
The woman told the court she felt some "guilt" that she had not come forward sooner when she first saw coverage of Brand's alleged attacks. She said: "There is a part of me now that says you know you should have come forward earlier, you should have been able to trust that the process would have worked." Reflecting on the coverage in 2023, she said: "There was some guilt. You know, he was rough, he was violent and he was persistent. He overpowered me with such strength it was just shocking, shocking. I was at work, it wasn't like in a club. I was literally attacked when I was at work."
Brand was joined again by his wife Laura Gallacher as he arrived at the central London court, located near Tower Bridge and the Shard. He was wearing a black shirt and trousers under a black overcoat with a long white scarf, a silver crucifix and dark sunglasses.
Brand is on trial accused of three rapes, three sexual assaults, and an allegation of indecent assault. He denies all the charges against him and is set to argue that consensual encounters have been "reimagined" by his accusers after he faced allegations of sexual misconduct in recent years. The trial continues.
