Russell Brand rape trial hears woman say he became ‘monster-like’ before alleged hotel room attack

A woman allegedly raped by British celebrity Russell Brand more than two decades ago told a court she was “terrified” and he became “monster-like” before attacking her in a hotel room.

The jury at a London trial heard testimony from a woman who has accused Brand of raping her in Bournemouth, southern England, in 1999 when he was acting in a theatre show at the Labour Party Conference.

The woman testified yesterday (local time) from behind a screen so she was not visible to the media or Brand, facing lengthy cross-examination from his defence lawyer.

“I know he raped me,” she told the court as Brand’s lawyer Ian Winter suggested she had welcomed the performer’s sexual attentions.

“I did say no, I didn’t want sex. I didn’t want his dirty penis inside me. I value my body,” she said, at times sounding tearful.

Brand, 51, who is also a former Hollywood actor and was married to pop star Katy Perry, denies seven charges of rape and sexual assault involving six women from 1999 to 2009 and has pleaded not guilty.

The woman, who was the first to give evidence, has not been identified. She said she had chatted with Brand at his show, and then suggested they continue discussing a possible theatre project in her hotel room.

“He manipulated me, he disarmed me into thinking I was safe around him,” she said in court, alleging Brand then became “monster-like”.

“I thought I was sexually safe. I thought he was a gay man ... that is my error in judgement and I regret that to this day,” the woman added.

At the hotel, she returned from the toilet and saw Brand had stripped to tight underpants, she said, telling the court that “at that point I was terrified, I had nowhere to run”.

She denied Brand’s lawyer’s suggestion he had persuaded her to have sex, saying: “He did not persuade me, he seemed menacing at that point to me.”

‘I can’t breathe’

The jury was earlier shown the video of a 2023 police interview where the woman said Brand pushed her onto the hotel bed.

“I do remember saying ‘no, what are you doing?’”, she told police.

Asked in court by the prosecution how Brand responded to her, she said: “He didn’t, he just carried on.”

She estimated in court that at the time she weighed 40 to 45kg at the time while Brand was “really heavy”.

“I was feeling I can’t breathe — claustrophobic — he’s on top of me, I’m hurting,” she said.

“I did not consent, I did not find him attractive.”

Brand’s trial began on Monday amid a storm of media attention and in their opening statement on Wednesday, the prosecution accused him of being a “sexual predator” who was “ruthless” and “manipulative”.

The jury at London’s Southwark Court will hear testimony from the six women making allegations dating between 1999 and 2009 when Brand was rising to fame.

Brand, who has rebranded himself as a faith-based online commentator and guru, listened to the first woman’s evidence in his glass-walled dock.

She told police she came forward after watching a 2023 British television documentary featuring separate allegations of sexual misconduct against the former movie star.

Judge Joel Bennathan told the jury all six women in the case went to the police after seeing this documentary, but cautioned it presented the allegations in a “one-sided” way.

The woman said in court she had not reported the alleged rape at the time “because I didn’t want anyone to know at that point”.

“I was ashamed. I felt nobody would believe me”