By Sam Tobin
LONDON, Oct 15 (Reuters) – One of six women who allege British actor and comedian Russell Brand sexually assaulted them over a decade broke down in tears as she told police she blamed herself for being raped by him more than 25 years ago, his trial heard on Thursday.
Brand, once one of Britain’s most high-profile broadcasters and the former husband of US singer Katy Perry, is on trial accused of three counts of rape, three of sexual assault and one of indecent assault between 1999 and 2009.
The 51-year-old denies the allegations and told police after his arrest that he had never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity.
Prosecutors on Wednesday described him as being a ruthless sexual predator as his career progressed from stand-up comedy gigs to becoming a TV presenter and later a Hollywood movie star.
On the second day of his trial at London’s Southwark Crown Court, jurors were played a police interview with a woman who says she met Brand at an event at the Labour Party conference in 1999, before he raped her in her hotel room.
“He knew what he was doing… he wanted to have sex that night and I was there,” the woman said.
“I just remember him pushing me and I said ‘no’, but I was really scared … I can’t remember much after that.”
She said a 2023 documentary, which made allegations of sexual misconduct against Brand, prompted her to contact police, adding: “I saw how manipulative he was … I was thinking this is what he did to me but in a different way.”
The woman also said: “I know I said ‘no’ … I knew I couldn’t get out of the situation. ‘Do I shout, do I scream?'”
She told police that she felt that “this is something dirty that happened to me … and I thought it was my fault”, adding: “But in those days it was your fault, you know?”
The woman also said Brand had been “almost like trying to convince me it was all OK”. She described it as “what abusers do”.
Brand told her afterwards “don’t worry, I get tested regularly”, she added, and wrote his email address down for her.
‘VORACIOUS’ DESIRE
Prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones said on Wednesday that Brand’s “strong desire for some form of sexual contact was indiscriminate and voracious”.
Brand is alleged to have tried to drag a woman into a toilet cubicle at MTV Europe where she worked in 2001 and separately to have orally raped a woman in a toilet cubicle in a bar in 2004.
He is also charged with indecently assaulting a woman in 2004 or 2005, anally raping a fifth complainant after they had consensual sex at his home in 2009, and later that same year sexually assaulting a woman who worked for Channel 4.
All six complainants, who are legally entitled to lifelong anonymity, came forward after the 2023 documentary, Judge Joel Bennathan told jurors on Thursday.
He said the women whose allegations were featured in the documentary were not part of the trial and their accusations had not been tested in court.
He added: “The defence may suggest the programme caused the complainants, or at least some of them, to revisit historic sexual events and in their memories twist them from the consensual acts they were to the crimes they now allege.”
The trial is expected to last around six weeks.
(Reporting by Sam Tobin;Editing by Alison Williams and Andrew Cawthorne)
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