‘Monster-like’: Woman alleges Russell Brand posed for photos moments before sudden rape

Warning: Graphic content

London: A woman who alleges she was raped by Russell Brand has told a court the actor underwent a sudden change in manner as they talked in her hotel room, demanding she take photographs of him before pushing her onto a bed.

The woman told jurors that Brand became suddenly “monster-like” after they had talked for hours on the night they met in September 1999, leaving her in pain after he forced himself on top of her and raped her.

“I couldn’t struggle. I couldn’t breathe,” she told the court, saying she was pinned down by the actor’s weight. “I know I said ‘No’.”

Brand, 51, is facing trial in London on three counts of rape, three of sexual assault and one of indecent assault. He denies all the charges and has insisted he never engaged in non-consensual sex.

The woman, described as the first complainant among six women alleging sexual assault and rape, said she thought Brand was gay because of his “effeminate” manner when they met at a cabaret where he was appearing on the sidelines of a Labour conference in Bournemouth.

They spoke about her ideas for a play about forced marriage, she told the court, and went to her hotel room to continue the conversation because she was not drinking and did not want to go to a pub because it would be hard to hear.

She said that after she suggested Brand make a coffee while she went to the bathroom, she returned to find him “prancing” around the room “like an ostrich” without his shirt, and that he then demanded she take photographs of him with her camera.

In key evidence produced in court, jurors were shown two photographs of the actor, who was 24 at the time, staring at the camera with a mirror and small wash basin behind him. In one image he appears to gesture to the camera.

The woman, who was in her late 20s at the time, said that Brand became aroused while she was taking photographs and that she saw this clearly at one stage because he was in his underpants, which she referred to as “budgie smugglers”.

In a video interview with police that was shown to the court, the woman said Brand forced her onto the bed and pulled her trousers and underwear down. He kissed her in a “lizard-like” way and put his fingers in her mouth, making it hard for her to breathe.

“He knew I didn’t want it. He put himself straight in. It was hurting. He was having sex, pushing, pushing.” She said she had her eyes shut and could not do anything because of his weight.

Her statements in the police interview were challenged by Brand’s counsel when the woman appeared in court to give direct evidence, after the video was shown.

The defence counsel, Ian Winter, KC, said the photographs were at odds with the woman’s statement to police because they showed Brand was wearing white pants rather than being in his underwear as she had said.

The woman rejected those doubts by saying she had kept taking photographs even if some did not turn out, and she was adamant that he had been in his “budgie smugglers” at one stage – and that she had become scared.

When Winter asked the woman in cross-examination why she did not leave the hotel room when Brand took off his clothes, she replied that she had nowhere to go and there were no staff at the hotel late in the night.

Winter suggested to the woman that she had allowed Brand to persuade her to have sex, telling her: “It wasn’t rape.” He then said: “It’s your right to have a one-night stand if you want.”

The woman said: “He did not persuade me.” She said she could have had one-night stands if she chose, but she did not want sex with Brand. “I didn’t find him attractive,” she said.

The trial has made headlines in Britain this week because of the six claims against Brand, who shot to stardom two decades ago as a host on MTV before appearing on reality television shows and appearing in movies such as Get Him To the Greek and Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Brand married singer Katy Perry in 2010, but they divorced two years later. In 2017, he married author Laura Gallacher, who has supported him against the allegations and appeared alongside him on the first day of the trial.

With the question of consent dominating the second day of the trial, Brand’s counsel suggested that the first complainant only came forward because she had seen part of a 2023 documentary that cited unnamed women who accused Brand of sexual assault.

Winter said this made the woman think that Brand raped her – a suggestion she vehemently rejected in testimony. At times, she became tearful as she spoke of being ashamed over what had taken place.

The judge presiding over the trial at Southwark Crown Court, Justice Joel Bennathan, interrupted the cross-examination when Winter suggested that the woman did not say “No” during the alleged rape.

The judge checked the transcript from the video interview and noted that the woman told police she had said to Brand: “What are you doing? No, no.”

Prosecuting barrister Riel Karmy-Jones, KC, also highlighted parts of the police interview when the woman said she had told Brand to stop.

“I did say ‘No’,” the woman told the court. The sex took about five minutes, she said, and she felt she could not do anything and it was better for it to end quickly.

“He did rape me,” she said.

The woman testified in court behind a screen so she was visible to the judge and jury, but not to the media to Brand, who sat in a glass dock paying close attention to the testimony. Brand sat upright throughout the day in court, thanking attendants briefly at times.

The woman told the court that Brand left quickly after the alleged rape and told her that he remembered he needed to see his mother.

After he left, she said, she spent hours washing herself in the hotel bathroom. “I remember banging my head against the wall,” she said.

Those making sexual assault accusations have the right to anonymity under British law. This masthead seeks to avoid reporting details that might identify witnesses in the trial. The trial is expected to continue for at least six weeks.

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) or the Men’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491.

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