A woman who says Russell Brand raped her in a London bar told police she kept her eyes shut throughout the alleged attack, a jury at Southwark Crown Court has heard. Footage of her 2023 police interview was played in court on Monday, according to the BBC. The complainant, who was in her twenties at the time, says the incident happened at a birthday party in Soho in 2004.
Brand, 51, denies all charges. He faces seven counts in total — three of rape, three of sexual assault and one of indecent assault — brought by six women. The alleged offences are said to have taken place over a decade, between 1999 and 2009.
Why it matters
The case is one of the most closely followed celebrity trials in Britain, and the complainant is the third woman whose evidence the jury has now heard. She is also the second to allege rape. The court is being asked to weigh detailed, decade-old recollections against a defendant who says nothing happened.
A conversation about Big Brother
In the recorded interview, the woman said she and Brand had been discussing his role as host of Channel 4's Big Brother's Big Mouth. She described him grabbing her breasts without warning in the middle of that conversation. She told the officer the image she retains is of a wide smile that struck her as clown-like, paired with an odd look in his eye.
She said the toilets were situated behind where Brand was standing, and that he held her arm firmly and pulled her towards them. According to her account, the floor inside was covered in water. She said he then exposed himself and orally raped her.
The woman told police she made her unwillingness clear at the time. She described the experience as being pushed by a force, and said she simply closed her eyes and tried to be somewhere else. She also recalled that afterwards Brand suggested they exchange phone numbers.
A second account of a Soho night
Her evidence follows testimony from another complainant about an alleged attack in a Soho bar, which the London Evening Standard reported included a description of Brand looking "like a clown" afterwards. The Times reported that one accuser said the comedian called her a "spoilsport". The BBC's coverage of the trial's fifth day was billed under the phrase "wild-eyed maniac". East Renfrewshire News reported that one accuser said she was appalled when Brand was later rehired as a television presenter.
Each of these accounts comes from separate complainants and forms part of the wider case against Brand, who has consistently denied wrongdoing.
The trial continues.
