A woman told jurors on the fourth day of Russell Brand’s trial that the actor and comedian became “monster-like” before allegedly raping her, describing him as moving “like a zombie on the bed.”
Brand is accused of grooming the woman at the 1999 Labour Party conference and acting as though he was the “centre of the show” while pressuring her to photograph him partially undressed.
Images shown at Southwark Crown Court depict Brand, then aged 24, smiling topless and blowing a kiss towards the woman, who prosecutors say was terrified.
The court heard that Brand then allegedly forced the 28-year-old on to a bed and raped her. She said he told her she would “have to learn to enjoy it” while she struggled beneath his weight.
Brand, now 51, denies three rape charges, three allegations of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault.
Jurors heard that the woman invited Brand to her hotel room in Bournemouth for tea after meeting him at a satirical theatre performance. She said she mistakenly believed he was gay and therefore did not regard him as a threat.
In a police interview played to the court, she recalled Brand removing his shirt and behaving theatrically. She described him “prancing around like an ostrich” and kicking his legs up in a way she compared with Basil Fawlty’s goose-step in the television series Fawlty Towers.
The woman, who is now in her 50s, said she became frightened when Brand’s manner changed after they had spent hours discussing the theatre production. She told jurors that the friendly, camp and effeminate man she had been speaking with appeared to turn into a “monster.”
Photographs allegedly taken by the woman of Russell Brand in her Bournemouth hotel room were shown to the court during the trial
The court heard that Brand acted as though he was the “centre of the show” while allegedly insisting that the woman take photographs of him partly undressed
Russell Brand pictured outside Southwark Crown Court on Thursday, the fourth day of his trial
Sobbing as she gave evidence, she said Brand had shifted from being “camp and effeminate and friendly” to someone “monster-like.” She recalled that he was half dressed, dark, arrogant and intimidating, adding that he appeared to be performing for an audience.
“He was scary and demanding,” she said. “He was the centre of the show. It was like he was back on stage. He was 100 per cent not that person I was chatting to.”
She told the court that the change in Brand’s behaviour left her feeling frightened and that she no longer recognised the person she had been speaking with earlier.
“He raped me,” she said. “I said, ‘No, I don’t want this.’”
The witness said she remembered the words Brand allegedly used in response.
According to her evidence, he told her: “Let yourself into it, let yourself enjoy it, do not worry about shame and reputation.”
She said she had not consented to sex and was unable to fight him off. The woman recalled turning her head away when he allegedly put his fingers in her mouth.
“He was a big, heavy weight on me,” she said, explaining that she did not have the physical strength to push him away. “I was not enjoying it.”
She added: “I did not want his dirty penis in me. I don’t love him. I did not find him attractive, never have.”
She added: ‘I felt dirty. I felt like I was choking. It was like him insisting I enjoy something when I did not want it.’
She told police: ‘He was just saying, “We’re having fun, it’s fine, it’s all good.”
‘This is what abusers do. It was almost like trying to convince me it’s all OK.
‘I’d have to learn to enjoy it.’
Earlier, she had spent the day at the conference meeting celebrities and politicians, including then Prime Minister Tony Blair, George Michael, Boy George and the actor Richard Wilson, who starred in One Foot In The Grave.
The 51-year-old actor is accused of three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault, and one count of indecent assault, which he denies. Brand outside court on Thursday
That evening, she met Brand for the first time at a fringe theatrical performance he starred in.
She recalled the comedian pulling her ponytail when he approached her after the show.
‘He was very childish, he was very playful – I didn’t feel threatened by him’, she said.
Initially Brand showered her with compliments, telling her she was pretty and clever as they chatted for hours about a play they could stage, she said.
She invited him back to her hotel room to continue their conversation, but became ‘frightened’ when Brand suddenly took his clothes off and demanded she photograph him.
She said: ‘I remember him being like an ostrich – like a bird because he was very leggy.
‘I just remember him jumping up and down being silly.
‘I remember him being like an ostrich kicking his legs up almost Basil Fawlty-esque.’
She described Brand as being ‘skinny’ with ‘intense eyes’, ‘prancing around’ wearing ‘budgie smugglers’.
‘I found his body a bit snake-like and disgusting. It made me feel sick,’ she told the court.
When she questioned why he had removed his clothing, Brand is said to have replied: ‘It’s OK, it’s just how I am, don’t worry. I’m mostly naked at home.’
She told jurors: ‘I was terrified. I did what I thought I had to do in that moment. I had nowhere to run.
‘He is a big guy. Should I have fought him off? He is prancing around with his stupid budgie smugglers on.
‘You suddenly realise, what have I got myself into?
‘I froze.’
She described how Brand suddenly pounced, straddling her on the bed.
He was ‘lizard-like with his tongue which was making me feel sick’.
‘He was really heavy, he was pulling my trousers off, pulling my knickers off and he was in me and it was painful,’ she said.
The victim said she begged him, ‘Please stop, it hurts’ as she feared he was going to break her ribcage.
‘I just remember him on me, really heavy, and me trying not to let him kiss me’, she told police.
‘I could not even breathe.’
She added: ‘He knew exactly what he was doing. He wanted to have sex that night and I was there.’
There were fiery scenes in court as Ian Winter, KC, defending Brand, accused the witness of lying about falling ‘under the spell’ of the ‘magnetic’ star.
The judge had to interrupt the defence barrister a number of times to object to the questions posed to the victim.
Mr Justice Bennathan said: ‘Shush. I’m the judge you have to let me talk.’
The victim insisted: ‘I knew he didn’t care. I could not do anything. I was like a zombie on the bed.’
She added: ‘He was frightening, he seemed menacing to me at that point. I did not want a one-night stand. I live a very simple, modest, celibate life.
‘He is so arrogant that he is God’s gift.’
She told the barrister: ‘I did not go there for sex and I categorically did not want sex with him – some random man.
‘He raped me. I may not accurately remember what I wore, what I ate that day, but it happened.’
Moments after the rape Brand is said to have made his excuses claiming he had to leave to see his mother.
He appeared ‘flippant’, telling her not to worry because he regularly got tested for sexually transmitted infections, it was said.
‘He got up. He didn’t think he had done anything wrong. I remember him writing down his email. I think he was trying to show me he was a family guy,’ she said.
After he left, she locked the door and burst into tears.
She described being so distressed that she banged her head on the wall and spent hours cleaning herself.
The victim added: ‘I second-guessed myself. Was I somehow to blame around what happened? Was it my fault because I let a man into a hotel room and that is the way the world is going to look at it?
‘He knew I would not report him. He acted like this was ok to do this. Any decent man knows that is wrong.
‘He acted like he had done nothing. He had violated me, but he acted like completely normal.’
The next day she was in so much pain she missed a train because she could not lift her suitcase, she said.
The victim said she had spent years blaming herself for the attack and worried that she may have become pregnant.
‘I felt stupid’ she sobbed. ‘It made me feel so dirty and I thought it was my fault. In those days it was your fault, it was always your fault.’
Later she told friends that Brand had once asked her out.
But she did not contact police until after watching a Dispatches programme in 2023 regarding allegations against him from several women.
Giving evidence from behind a large blue screen shielding her from the view of the defendant, the victim said she decided to come forward as she ‘saw how manipulative he was’.
‘I could not watch it all, all I could think was the room spinning’, she recalled.
‘I blame myself, he has done this to all of those other women, would it have stopped if I had come forward?
‘I blamed myself in that moment.’
The defendant, wearing a suit and a silver cross around his neck, displayed no emotion.
The trial continues.
