Russell Brand was portrayed in court as a ruthless alleged sexual predator with a “voracious” appetite for sex, who pursued an ambition to sleep with 5,000 women, jurors were told today.
Prosecutors described the comedian and actor as a calculated, manipulative alleged rapist who spent a decade assaulting women and viewing them as a way to fulfil what they called his “insatiable desire”.
Brand, 51, denies three rape charges, three counts of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault involving six women between 1999 and 2009.
At the opening of the high-profile trial at Southwark Crown Court in London, jurors heard that the “child-like” television star allegedly used comedy and charm to draw women in. He was said to perform silly walks, likened to Basil Fawlty, before allegedly attacking his victims “like an animal”.
The court heard that Brand, a married father of two, regularly boasted about his sexual success, describing himself as an “expert pick-up artist”, a womaniser and a ladies’ man. Prosecutors said he spoke of wanting to “bed 5,000 women in my lifetime” and claimed: “All you have to do is tell them what they need to hear.”
Riel Karmy-Jones KC, prosecuting, told jurors that Brand would mock women who rejected him, suggesting they were being a “spoilsport” by refusing his advances.
She said: “The defendant was not deterred. His desire for some form of sexual contact was indiscriminate and voracious.
“He could be kind when he chose, funny, undoubtedly charming and likeable whenever he wanted something in return.
Russell Brand, 51, pictured with his wife Laura Gallacher outside London’s Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday
A court artist’s sketch shows Brand during proceedings on Wednesday
The comedian and actor was described in court as a “calculated and manipulative” alleged rapist
“But he was also demanding and entitled, a flirt with an enormous sexual appetite, and childlike in expecting every desire to be satisfied.
“He was ruthless, calculated and manipulative, and the prosecution says he was a sexual predator.”
Jurors heard that as Brand’s acting career advanced and he became a Hollywood star, his celebrity status allegedly allowed him to carry out sexual attacks openly. One woman’s complaint was reportedly dismissed by television executives.
Friends allegedly described Brand as “rampant in his desire to score sex”, with what prosecutors characterised as an “insatiable desire” to get what he wanted from whoever he wanted, treating women “as if they were nothing”.
The first alleged incident is said to have taken place in 1999, involving a woman attending the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth.
Prosecutors allege that Brand took the woman to a hotel room after meeting her at a show where he had been performing.
The woman was reportedly surprised to discover Brand partly undressed and “prancing around the room”, performing silly walks compared in court to an ostrich and Basil Fawlty.
Brand allegedly told her: “It’s OK, it’s just how I am, don’t worry. I’m mostly naked at home,” before asking her to take photographs of him posing topless, the court heard.
Brand, pictured outside court on Wednesday, denies three rape charges, three counts of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault
Ms Karmy-Jones said Brand pushed the woman onto the bed and raped her.
The prosecutor said: ‘She remembers the weight of him on top of her, she couldn’t move, and was finding it hard to breathe, but recalls trying not to let him kiss her, and saying ‘no’.
‘She was scared. He groped her, was touching her, he grabbed her breasts, he was trying to kiss her, he was putting his fingers in her mouth and doing things with his tongue that were horrible, lizard-like.’
Afterwards, Brand is alleged to have made excuses for how quick things had been before claiming he had to get back to his mother, leaving the victim crying in shock.
Brand’s former friend Mark Pinheiro told jurors that the comedian had rushed to leave the area, ‘cowering’ in the back seat of a car when he heard police sirens.
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Later, the defendant allegedly told Mr Pinheiro: ‘I think I may have gone a bit too far.’
Two years later, a ‘desperate wild-eyed’ Brand is accused of trying to drag an MTV worker into a toilet cubicle after she complimented him on his t-shirt.
In 2004 he is alleged to have orally raped a woman at a bar after groping her within minutes of them meeting during a birthday party.
The former Big Brother presenter is said to have told the woman, ‘Oh come on don’t be a spoilsport’ when she protested to him, ‘I don’t want to do this.’
Brand is accused of carrying out a fourth attack on a woman at a radio station around 2004.
The court heard he grabbed the victim in her 20s, pushed her up against a wall and kissed her ‘sloppily and aggressively’, grabbing the woman’s breasts and buttocks during a ‘rough, fast and frenzied’ assault.
When he was pushed off, Brand sniggered ‘like it was a joke’, jurors heard.
The prosecutor said: ‘These women meant nothing to him.’
A fifth victim met Brand backstage following a Hammersmith Apollo gig in 2009 after he allegedly told the audience: ‘You probably can have sex with me… My age range is from 16 to death.’
The starstruck fan said she was selected to take part in a ‘threesome’ from a queue of women.
The following day, the 21-year-old woman was invited to the home of Brand, who was then 33.
He allegedly anally raped her, shoving her face into a pillow as she begged him to stop before ordering her to ‘clean up the mess you have made’.
The traumatised woman later received an apology by text after she told Brand: ‘You treated me like an animal,’ the court heard.
The final alleged victim, a Channel 4 worker, claims she was sexually assaulted in 2009 after being told by his entourage to give Brand a massage.
Mr Pinheiro told jurors that Brand had ‘boasted’ of wanting to sleep with 5,000 women and shared his tips for ‘pulling girls’.
During a preview of Brand’s 2013 comedy show Messiah Complex, Brand allegedly told him: ‘What you are about to see is some real rock and roll s***.’
The star is then said to have selected girls lined up against a wall, taking each to the toilets for 10 minutes.
The prosecutor said: ‘His MO [modus operandi] was varied. Sometimes he might tell women what they wanted to hear, sometimes he might have appeared interested in their cause, sometimes he might even have made sexual advances within minutes of meeting them, but every time he had identified his target, he was intent on trying to fulfil his sexual desire.’
One friend, Andrew Dobson, said simply: ‘Women and sex were a goal and an obsession.’
The six alleged victims only came forward in 2025 after claims of sexual misconduct were reported in a newspaper and TV documentary.
During interviews, Brand told police that all his sexual contact was consensual.
He said he could not recall his accusers and claimed they had ‘reimagined’ the encounters.
Today, Brand, of Hambleden, Buckinghamshire, sat in the dock dressed in a black suit and tightly clutching a silver cross in his right hand. He showed no emotion as the details of the charges were read out.
The trial continues.
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