Russell Brand grabbed a woman's breasts, dragged her into the men's toilets and tried to force her to give him oral sex, his rape trial at Southwark Crown Court has heard. The comedian opened the door and let the woman go after she pushed him off and started screaming, jurors were told.
Southwark Crown Court heard the female MTV worker made the claim in a 999 call in September 2023 in which she described an alleged incident at a friend's party.
She said: "He arrived and he was talking to me at the bar and he grabbed my breasts and forced me into the men’s toilet and tried to force me to give him oral sex."
Woman's account of alleged incident
She said she "pushed him off" and "started screaming" while trying to open the door. It was heard she alleged that another person asked if she was OK before Brand opened the door and let her out.
Jurors were told that in a police interview in November that year, Brand said it was "likely" he had been invited to the birthday party where the alleged attack happened.
He told police: "At no point would I have touched (her) breasts unless it was consensual. I have had consensual sex in toilet cubicles during parties."
Brand's denial in police interview
He added: "I have never forced anyone into a toilet and I have never forced my penis into anyone’s mouth. As I stated at the outset, I have never engaged in any non-consensual sexual activity."
The court heard he read a pre-prepared statement during the interview, in which he said he had spent years "denouncing his promiscuous lifestyle" and that "further encounters had been invented or reimagined" due to media coverage.
He added: "I did on occasion find reasons for leaving, or for asking partners in casual sexual encounters to leave, shortly after the experience had concluded. I had sexual encounters in countless locations and scenarios, often with people I had just met."
Charges and trial status
Brand said: "The way of life that I have described, the magnitude of the promiscuity, deceptively rendered in recent media attacks, accompanied by advertisements for complainants, have caused consensual encounters to be unfavourably reframed decades later."
In a prepared statement from July 17 2025, Brand said he had "sexual encounters in countless locations and scenarios", but denied any were non-consensual.
An indecent assault charge was changed to attempted indecent assault and jurors were instructed to find him not guilty on that count of indecent assault.
Brand, supported in court by wife Laura Gallacher, denies three rapes, three sexual assaults and an attempted indecent assault on six women between 1999 and 2009. The trial continues.
