- July 2004Alleged incident at a Soho bar, as described in the complainant's police interview
- Around 2006MTV rehires Brand as a presenter, according to the complainant
- 2023Police interview with the complainant is recorded
Charges and plea
Russell Brand, 51, is on trial at Southwark Crown Court in London on seven charges: three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault. The allegations come from six women and cover a period between 1999 and 2009. Brand has pleaded not guilty and denies all the charges. The trial continues and is expected to last six weeks.
The alleged 2004 encounter
The witness shown to the jury is the third of Brand's accusers to give evidence and the second to allege rape. She says the incident took place in July 2004 during a birthday party at the Nordic Bar in Soho, where she had been talking with Brand for less than a minute. In her account, he grabbed her breasts in the middle of the conversation, then took hold of her arm and pulled her into a toilet cubicle. She told police the floor there was flooded and that he climbed on the closed toilet seat and forced her to perform a sex act. Brand has said that any sexual contact, had it happened, would have been consensual.
Her account in the police interview
The recording comes from a 2023 video interview with an officer, which was played to the jury at Southwark Crown Court on Monday, 19 October. In it she describes Brand as having a 'big grin' and looking like a clown, and says that every time she tried to move away he forced her back. She told police she had said 'what are you doing, I don't want to do this', and that he replied 'come on, come on'. She said she did not feel her life was in danger, although the incident felt like seconds. Afterwards she says he acted as though nothing had happened and suggested they swap numbers.
Work at MTV and the years after
She was working at MTV at the time and told police she never reported the incident, believing it would be her word against his in what she called 'those laddish culture times'. A few days later she told a producer friend at MTV that Brand had tried to sexually assault her, calling him a 'sexual predator'. She said she was 'absolutely appalled' when MTV rehired Brand as a presenter around 2006, and she avoided him whenever she could. She also said she downplayed the incident because she did not want to see herself as a victim.
What comes next
No verdict has been reached and the trial continues. The jury has so far heard from three of the six complainants. Brand arrived at the court on Monday morning with his wife, Laura Gallacher.