By Michael Holden
LONDON, Oct 14 (Reuters) – Actor and comedian Russell Brand, once one of Britain’s most high-profile broadcasters, was a ruthless predator who raped or abused six women despite their protestations to satisfy his voracious sexual appetite, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
Brand, 51, the former husband of US singer Katy Perry, is on trial facing three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault relating to six women from 1999 to 2009.
He denies all the accusations and will set out his defence in court at a later date.
“Today I feel blessed,” he said as he arrived at London’s Southwark Crown Court. “I feel of course concerned but hopeful that this process will lead to good outcomes for everybody involved.”
DESIRE WAS INDISCRIMINATE, PROSECUTOR TELLS COURT
Opening the case against him, prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones said some of the six women who had made the allegations had protested, while others had no opportunity to react to his advances. It had made no difference to Brand, she said.
“His desire, his strong desire, for some form of sexual contact was indiscriminate and voracious,” the prosecutor said.
Although he could be funny, charming and likeable when he wanted something, he also had a childlike expectation his every desire should be met, she added.
“He was ruthless, he was calculating, he was manipulative and, the prosecution say, he was a sexual predator,” Karmy-Jones said.
The alleged offences took place over a decade as he progressed from gigs as a stand-up comedian to a TV presenter, actor and Hollywood movie star, she said.
BRAND SAYS NEVER ENGAGED IN NON-CONSENSUAL ACTIVITY
The first is alleged to have occurred in 1999 when he was performing in a show on the fringe of the Labour Party Conference in Bournemouth.
The first complainant, who had watched the show and had assumed Brand was gay, said he had raped her in her hotel room where she had invited him because she thought he was interested in a cause she had been talking to him about.
One of his co-performers at that show said Brand had bragged that he had wanted to bed 5,000 women in his lifetime, the prosecutor said.
In 2001, he is accused of trying to drag a woman into a toilet cubicle at MTV Europe where she worked. Three years later, a woman said he had dragged her into a toilet cubicle in a bar before orally raping her.
Around the same time in 2004 or 2005, a woman working at a media company said he indecently assaulted her at her office.
The fifth complainant, a fan, had consensual sex at his home in 2009 but then he anally raped her, the prosecutor said. The sixth complainant, who worked for Channel 4, alleges Brand had demanded a massage and then pressed his face into her groin area, in the same year.
When interviewed by police, Brand declined to answer questions but provided written statements in which he said he did not remember the incidents, had never engaged in non-consensual activity and accepted that he had had sex in toilet cubicles during parties, Karmy-Jones said.
WOMEN CAME FORWARD AFTER TV PROGRAMME
The women involved did not know each other and had not taken the matter to the police at the time for various reasons, but came forward with complaints following a TV programme and a press report in 2023 in which anonymous allegations were made by other women, the prosecutor said.
Brand sat in the dock wearing a dark suit and thin, white scarf, staring forward intently.
His trial, expected to last about six weeks, has attracted huge media attention, with a second court opened to allow more journalists to attend and many outlets running daily podcasts.
The comedian, known for his flamboyant style and appearance, became famous in Britain before starring in a number of films including “Get Him to the Greek” in 2010, the same year he married Perry. They divorced in 2012.
More recently Brand has appeared in online broadcasts discussing US politics, religion and free speech.
(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Sam Tobin, Alexandra Hudson and Alison Williams)
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