Editor’s note: This article includes descriptions of alleged sexual offences that some readers may find upsetting.
Russell Brand is accused of persuading a woman to exchange telephone numbers after he allegedly performed oral rape on her in a London bar toilet, the court heard.
On the sixth day of Brand’s trial at Southwark Crown Court in London, jurors were shown footage of a 2023 police interview with one of the alleged victims. The woman later gave live evidence from behind a screen in court. She has lifelong anonymity under the law and is referred to in court documents as Complainant 3 (C3); Deadline uses that label here, though she has been named in court filings.
Brand, 51, has entered a plea of not guilty. The actor, known for his role in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, has consistently denied any criminal conduct, maintaining that sexual encounters with women were consensual. He watched the police interview and listened to C3’s testimony from the dock.
C3 told officers she had attended a birthday gathering for a British television producer at the Nordic Bar in Soho in July 2004, where she encountered Brand. Deadline is not identifying the producer in order to protect C3’s anonymity, although he was named during the hearing.
She could not be certain whether she was formally introduced to Brand at the party, but said he arrived late after filming. They began speaking at the bar and, she alleged, almost immediately Brand “literally just grabbed my boobs,” adding that his expression was a “weird maniacal grin.”
C3 told police that Brand seized her arm and pulled her into the restroom, calling the incident “strange and bizarre and shocking.” Under cross-examination by Brand’s counsel, Ian Winter, she said she could not remember if she verbally told Brand not to touch her or if she actively resisted when he led her toward the toilets.
Winter suggested C3 had followed Brand willingly because she had been “charmed” by him. “I was not charmed in the slightest; I met this man for less than a minute when he sexually assaulted me,” she replied.
In the lavatory, the complainant alleged, Brand climbed onto the toilet seat, exposed himself and forced his penis into her mouth. She told the police interviewer that he pushed her head in “as far as he could,” and she said he ejaculated in her mouth.
“I closed my eyes and tried to not be there,” the woman said, visibly wiping away tears during the interview. “If I do this, maybe he won’t try to rape me further,” she recalled thinking. C3 said she “banged on the door” to get out after asking, “Can I go now?” She recounted: “He opened the door and followed me to the bar and said, ‘I guess we should swap numbers now.’”
She described her recollection of the remainder of the evening as “hazy,” saying the shock made it difficult to remember details. She also acknowledged having consumed six or seven vodka-and-lime-and-soda drinks that night.
C3 told the court she later ended up in a car with Brand as they went from Soho to another venue in Camden, and alleged that he exposed himself in the vehicle. She said Brand appeared to find it amusing, wearing a “weird look on his face,” as if urging her to go along with it. “I remember thinking, ‘Why am I sat in this car now,’” she said.
According to C3, she phoned the TV producer “a couple of days” after the party to warn him that Brand was a “sexual predator” who had attempted to assault her. She recalled the producer reacting, “I can’t believe that.”
The producer, in a 2023 witness statement read to the court by prosecution barrister Riel Karmy-Jones, said he remembered C3’s 2004 call. He recalled that she told him Brand had become “pushy,” “aggressive,” and that she had felt “scared.” The producer stated he had “made contact” with people connected to Brand and told them the behaviour was “not acceptable,” the court heard.
C3 did not disclose her allegation that Brand orally raped her until 19 years later, in September 2023, after reports about the comedian’s alleged misconduct appeared in The Times, The Sunday Times and Channel 4. She told police she felt compelled to come forward because she wanted “a nicer world for my daughter.”
Brand, who has more recently cultivated a presence as a right-leaning online commentator, faces three counts of rape, three charges of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault based on allegations from six women.
He will present his defence later in the trial. The court was repeatedly told that Brand declined to answer police questions in interview; instead he provided a prepared statement asserting he did not remember meeting the women or recalling their names, and that any sexual activity was consensual.
The trial is ongoing.
Daniel Hayes is a business journalist with a focus on market trends, startups, and corporate strategies.
His sharp analysis and investigative reports make complex financial topics accessible to all readers.
