A former MTV employee has told a jury that Russell Brand turned into a "wild-eyed maniac" as he allegedly tried to drag her into a men's toilet for a sexual encounter.
Giving evidence at Southwark Crown Court, the woman said she was forced to pull herself free after Brand grabbed her arm during an encounter in 2001. The witness said the comedian and broadcaster had been "affable" when they first met, before his behaviour suddenly changed.
Looking back on the incident, she told jurors: "Suddenly he turned into this wild-eyed maniac trying to pull me into the toilet."
Alleged assault after T-shirt compliment
The woman alleges Brand indecently assaulted her after the pair briefly spoke when she complimented his "I am Spartacus" T-shirt. She said Brand asked for directions to the men's toilets and that she pointed him in the right direction before showing him the way.
"His manner changed," she told the court. "He grabbed my forearm and he was leaning into the door. It was quite forceful, the grip. It took me unawares, I wasn't expecting that."
The witness said Brand began pleading with her to enter the toilet with him. "He was trying to pull me into the bathroom and I was trying to pull myself away," she said. "I said to him, 'What are you doing? Are you mad? Let me go'."
Witness feared career consequences
Describing Brand's appearance, she told jurors: "He had what I would call a wild look in his eyes." The woman said she managed to "wrench" herself free and leave.
Asked why she did not report the incident to police or raise it with managers at the time, she said Brand was one of MTV's biggest stars and she feared the consequences for her career. "There he is, one of the big assets at MTV and I have got a mortgage to pay, so why make it hard for myself?" she said.
"It would have been my word against his. I had a job to consider. I came away relatively unscathed and he didn't rape me. I managed to get myself out of the situation and I wanted a quiet life."
Defence cross-examination
Brand, 51, denies three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault. During cross-examination, his barrister, Ian Winter KC, suggested the witness's recollection of events had been influenced by a 2023 Channel 4 Dispatches documentary about Brand.
The woman rejected the suggestion, telling the court: "I always knew it was wrong. That didn't change my mind." She said she decided to go to police in 2023 because it was "the right thing to do", and rejected suggestions from Mr Winter that Brand had been seeking a consensual encounter and stopped when it was clear that she did not want it.
She told him: "You don't drag someone by the arm, not in my world anyway. You don't grip someone to drag them in, that's not consensual." She added that she "wrenched" herself out of Brand's grip, and suggested that she may have been stronger than he had expected her to be.
Asked how she felt after the alleged attack by Brand, the alleged victim said: "Bewildered, confused, 'what the hell happened there?'."
Earlier on Friday, the court heard from two men who were once part of a theatre troupe with Brand, as they were asked to recall the 1999 Labour Party conference where he is accused of raping a woman. He denies all the charges against him, and is set to argue that consensual encounters have been "reimagined" by his accusers after he faced allegation of sexual misconduct in recent years. The trial continues.
