Arabic version: امرأة تدلي بشهادتها في محاكمة راسل براند

According to BBC News, a woman alleging she was raped by Russell Brand told a Southwark Crown Court jury that she “closed my eyes and tried not to be there” during the alleged attack.

In a 2023 police video interview shown to jurors, the woman said she had been speaking with Brand about him hosting Channel 4’s Big Brother’s Big Mouth at a Soho birthday party in 2004. She alleged that he grabbed her breasts, dragged her into a flooded toilet and orally raped her.

The complainant, who worked for MTV at the time, said she delayed going to police for about two decades because she was terrified and believed Brand’s celebrity status would mean it was “his word against mine”. She told the court that the “lad culture” of the 2000s contributed to her reluctance to report the allegation.

Brand’s barrister, Ian Winter KC, suggested the pair had gone to the toilet consensually for a “kiss and a cuddle” but abandoned a sexual encounter because of the toilet’s condition. The woman rejected that account, saying Brand held her strongly and that she felt dazed, numb and ashamed afterwards.

Brand, 51, has pleaded not guilty to seven charges: three counts of rape, three charges of sexual assault and one of indecent assault. The allegations from six complainants cover 1999 to 2009. Brand denies all charges and has said any sexual contact, if it happened, was consensual. The trial is expected to last six weeks.