Court Rules Russell Brand Was a Ruthless Sexual Predator

Russell Brand was described in court as a ruthless “sexual predator” with a “voracious” appetite for sex, who allegedly raped women while working toward a self-declared ambition to sleep with 5,000 people.

Prosecutors portrayed the comedian and actor as a “calculated and manipulative” rapist who spent a decade assaulting women, allegedly viewing them as a “means to an end” in pursuit of what was described as an “insatiable desire.”

Brand, 51, denies three charges of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault involving six women between 1999 and 2009. The allegations form the basis of an extraordinary celebrity trial at London’s Southwark Crown Court.

During the opening hearing, jurors were told that the “child-like” television star allegedly used his comedy persona to draw women in, charming them before attacking “like an animal.”

The court heard that Brand, now a married father of three, was obsessed with sex and boasted to friends that he was an “expert pick-up artist,” a “womaniser” and a “ladies’ man.” He allegedly told them: “All you have to do is tell them what they need to hear.”

Prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones KC said Brand would mock women who rejected him, sniggering and telling them not to be a “spoilsport” when they refused his advances.

She told jurors: “The defendant was not deterred. His desire for some form of sexual contact was indiscriminate and voracious.

“He could be nice when he wanted to be, funny, undoubtedly charming, likeable even when he wanted something in return.”

“But then demanding, entitled, a flirt with a huge sexual appetite, child-like in his expectation that his every desire should be met.

“He was ruthless, calculated and manipulative and, the prosecution say, a sexual predator.”

Jurors heard that Brand’s rising acting career and growing status as a Hollywood star allegedly allowed him to carry out sexual attacks in plain sight. One woman’s complaint was reportedly ignored by television executives.

Friends described Brand as “rampant in his desire to score sex,” while prosecutors said he had an “insatiable desire to get what he wanted, with whomever he wanted it with,” treating women “as if they were nothing.”

The first alleged attack is said to have taken place in 1999, when Brand met a woman attending the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth.

After meeting the woman at a show where he was performing, Brand allegedly persuaded her to go to a hotel room. There, she was shocked to find him partly undressed and “prancing around the room doing silly walks, like [Fawlty Towers’] Basil Fawlty,” the court was told.

Brand allegedly told the woman, “It’s OK, it’s just how I am, don’t worry,” before asking her to photograph him. Ms Karmy-Jones said he then pushed the alleged victim onto the bed and raped her.

After the alleged assault, Brand reportedly made excuses for how quickly events had unfolded and said he needed to return to his mother. The woman was left crying and in shock, the prosecution said.

Brand’s former friend Mark Pinheiro told jurors that the comedian had rushed to leave when he arrived back at the flat they were sharing, ‘cowering’ in the back seat of a car when he heard police sirens on their journey.

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. In 2004 he is alleged to have orally raped a woman at a bar after groping her within minutes of them meeting.

The former Big Brother presenter 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 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 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.

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 employee, 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.

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 n’ roll s***.’ 

The star is then said to have selected from girls lined up against a wall, taking each one to the toilets for ten 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 alleged victims came forward in 2023 after claims of sexual misconduct were reported by The Times and in a Channel 4 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.

Brand sat in the dock dressed in a black suit and showed no emotion as the details of the charges were read out.

The trial continues and is expected to last up to eight weeks.