He Was ‘Ruthless and Calculated,’ Prosecution Says

Russell Brand was “ruthless and calculated” with an “indiscriminate and voracious” desire for sexual contact, the prosecution alleged in its opening statement at the actor and comedian’s rape trial in London.

Brand has been charged with three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault. He has pleaded not guilty and denied all charges.

The jury was selected on Tuesday, consisting of eight men and four women. The case involves six female plaintiffs, all of whom are given automatic lifelong anonymity according to U.K. law, and relates to alleged offenses that occurred between 1999 and 2009.

Arriving to Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday morning, Brand sported a black suit, pinstriped shirt, loose white tie and sunglasses. He was accompanied by his wife, Laura Gallacher, whose hand he clasped. According to BBC News, Brand told reporters on his way inside: “I feel blessed. I feel of course concerned, but hopeful that this process will lead to good outcomes for everybody — that is my prayer,” he said. Inside the courtroom, Brand appeared to be rubbing what looked like a rock or pebble in his hand.

Riel Karmy-Jones KC is leading the prosecution and set out the case against Brand. As the BBC reports, the six alleged victims “did not know each other, have never met each other” and “came forward independently of each other,” Karmy-Jones noted.

Brand was “ruthless and calculated” and “sometimes might tell women what they wanted to hear” to satisfy his sexual appetite, Karmy-Jones alleged. “The circumstances of the offending were as wide and as varied as the defendant’s career,” she said. “His strong desire for some form of sexual contact was indiscriminate and voracious.”

Karmy-Jones called Brand “a flirt with a huge sexual appetite — childlike in his expectation that his every desire should be met.” He would “appear indifferent” after an alleged assault, she claimed. “Sometimes he would leave promptly after the incident, sometimes making an excuse to get away or sometimes simply continuing as though nothing wrong had happened,” she said, according to BBC News.

The prosecution brought in testimony from a former friend of Brand’s, who claimed that the comedian bragged to him that he wanted to sleep with “5,000 women” in his lifetime and had laid out “rules” to achieve this, including telling women “what they want to hear.”

Turning to the first alleged victim, who was in her 20s at the time of the incident in 1999, the prosecution said she first met Brand at the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth and assumed he was gay. Later in her hotel room, she invited him to make himself a cup of tea while she used the bathroom. When she emerged, she was shocked to find him “partially undressed.”

“Perhaps some of her confusion can be explained by how the defendant was behaving, because as she came out of the bathroom he was prancing around the room — a bit like an ostrich, doing silly walks like Basil Fawlty,” Karmy-Jones said, as reported by BBC News. “She was taken aback, she was shocked and didn’t really know what to do — and in her words she froze a bit.”

The prosecution then alleged that Brand raped her. She “described drifting out of her head, knowing there was nothing she could do, as he pulled her trousers and underwear down, penetrated her vagina with his penis — raping her,” Karmy-Jones said.

The complainant didn’t report the alleged incident at the time because of Brand’s “celebrity status,” which she “now greatly regrets,” Karmy-Jomes said. When she did eventually file a police report and Brand was questioned, the prosecution claimed he did not remember her name or the incident, but insisted that he “had never engaged in non-consensual activity.”

The second alleged incident occurred in 2001 and involved a woman in her 30s who was working at MTV. As BBC News reports, Brand asked her where the toilets were, and when she showed him he asked her to “come in” and allegedly grabbed her forearm. She resisted and managed to pull herself away. The woman said she told one other person at the time, but did not formally report it until 2023 as she thought it could be relevant information after the Metropolitan Police began their investigation into Brand.

The third alleged victim claims she met Brand at a party in Soho in 2004, where he grabbed her breasts in the middle of a conversation, the prosecution claimed. The woman remembers Brand having a “big, weird grin” on his face during the alleged incident, and then pulled her to the toilets where he allegedly orally raped her.

The fourth allegation occurred at Capital Radio in 2004/2005. Brand allegedly pushed the woman against a wall and “aggressively” kissed her while grabbing “her body, at her breasts, sides and buttocks,” the prosecution said, according to BBC News. The alleged victim tried to push him off but “he was too strong and he continued to kiss her on her face, and down her neck and onto her chest area, grabbing her bum and moving his mouth towards her cleavage, and grabbing her breast so hard that it was painful,” Karmy-Jones said. When she did finally push him away, he “sniggered like it was a joke,” she added.

The alleged incident with the fifth complainant occurred in 2009. The alleged victim met Brand when he was performing at London’s Hammersmith Apollo, and their sexual encounter began consensually. They had vaginal sex and she asked him to wear a condom, which he did, the prosecution said. Brand then allegedly raped her anally. She asked him to stop and he did not, the prosecution added, and then she realized he had allegedly taken off the condom. According to BBC News, Karmy-Jones said the woman “spent months and years blaming herself for what had happened, and became extremely anxious and continued to be unwell as a result.”

The summer after the incident, the prosecution said the alleged victim saw Brand at a work event and ran out. She then received a text from him, on a phone she no longer owns. When the woman asked Brand why he was messaging her, he allegedly replied: “Because you’re dirty, and I wanna push you further.” She says she responded, “I think you pushed me far enough – you treated me like an animal,” to which Brand allegedly said, “I’m sorry.”

In the mid-2000s, Brand was best known as a comedian and actor, presenting shows such as “Big Brother’s Big Mouth” and starring in films such as “Get Him to the Greek” and “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” He has since pivoted to podcasting and influencing online.

The defense will present its argument later in the trial, which is expected to last for six weeks.