Russell Brand "boasted" on a journey to the 1999 Labour Party conference that he wanted to sleep with 5,000 women, a former friend has told a court. Mark Pinheiro said he and Brand were performing in a cabaret show together at the conference fringe, and as they travelled they talked in the back of the car about "meeting girls, pulling girls, picking up girls".
Court hears of 'target' and 'strategies'
Pinheiro told the court: "He hoped that one day he would have been able to have slept with over 5,000 girls, that was his target. He began boasting about certain strategies he would employ in his endeavour to meet women and pull women."
Pinheiro said Brand had some "memorable" techniques for sleeping with women. "One would have been: 'all you need to do is tell the woman what they need to hear and that's all you really need to do to get a successful pull'," he said.
Witness describes Brand's behaviour
Questioned on what was classed as "successful", Pinheiro told the court: "To be able to sleep with the person." He added that Brand's aim was to "never leave a situation without having some kind of conquest, always trying to score in every endeavour".
Pinheiro said Brand would have around two women a week come back to his flat for sex. He told the jury he asked Brand to move out after they had lived together for around a year, but said they stayed in touch and met up on holidays.
Brand's approach and career
"I had many situations and occasions where I saw Russell pick up women", Pinheiro said. "Russell approached a girl with a huge amount of enthusiasm and interest in them, which was enough to stop them in their tracks and hear what he had to say."
Pinheiro said Brand gave women compliments and cracked jokes, including ones aimed at himself. "He had a self-deprecating side to himself, he was able to laugh at himself," he said. "He would say all the terrible things he might be like, or what he might like to do to them. Girls found that shocking and were very surprised to hear someone being so brutally open and honest about how they were sexually."
The comedian, originally from Essex, was once a mainstay in the British media, presenting on Channel 4 and hosting his own BBC Radio 2 show. He has presented the Brit Awards, Comic Relief and the MTV Music Video Awards, as well as landing leading roles in Hollywood films such as Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Rock Of Ages, and Arthur.
Trial details and allegations
In recent years, Brand has transitioned into podcasting and now resides in Florida, US. He was accompanied to court by his wife Laura Gallacher.
Brand, 51, is currently on trial at Southwark Crown Court accused of being a "ruthless predator" who used women to satisfy his "huge sexual appetite" and who allegedly attacked those who tried to resist his advances. He has pleaded not guilty to three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault, and one count of indecent assault involving six women between 1999 and 2009.
He is accused of forcing women into sexual acts and kissing and groping them in an "obsessive" campaign to sleep with 5,000 women. One of the alleged victims claims Brand apologised for treating her "like an animal", the court heard on Wednesday, while another said he told her "don't be a spoilsport" when she refused to consent.
Some of his accusers say he laughed at them after they had tried to repel his advances, while members of his entourage have been accused of failing to step in to stop him. Prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones KC dubbed Brand a "sexual predator" who was "ruthless, calculated and manipulative", and said women have told police he was "childlike in his expectation that his every desire should be met".
Brand says all sexual contact was consensual, and is set to suggest that his accusers have "reimagined" the encounters they had with him after seeing media reports of his alleged sexual misconduct. The trial continues.
