Russell Brand was a 'sexual predator', says prosecution as rape trial begins

The fourth complainant says Brand pushed her up against a wall at Capital Radio in 2004 or 2005 and kissed her "sloppily and aggressively", and "grabbed her body, at her breasts, sides and buttocks, aggressively".

She was able to push him away and he "just sniggered, like it was a joke", the prosecutor said.

The jury then heard how the fifth complainant says she met Brand when he was performing at the Hammersmith Apollo in London in 2009.

The prosecution said their encounter began with consensual activity, but that he raped her anally on a later occasion.

The jury heard how the woman "spent months and years blaming herself", becoming anxious and unwell.

They were told Brand texted the woman after seeing her at an event the following summer, saying: "I wanna push you further."

She is said to have replied: "I think you pushed me far enough – you treated me like an animal." He allegedly replied: "I'm sorry."

The sixth complainant - who has accused Brand of sexual assault - says he demanded a massage when she was on a work assignment in 2009.

He "fell to his knees and placed his head directly into her groin area", the prosecution said.

After the accounts of the final two women were heard, the prosecutor said Brand told police in 2023 "he has never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity, and that any accounts had been reinvented or imagined after a defamatory documentary and subsequent press reporting".

On Wednesday afternoon, Brand's former flatmate Mark Pinheiro was the first witness to give evidence.

Pinheiro told jurors that Brand had told him he may have gone a "bit too far" with a woman when visiting the Labour Party conference in 1999.

"He said that things got a little bit heated and a little bit out of hand, and he thinks that maybe he did go a little bit too far.

"Those were his words - 'I think I may have gone a bit too far'."

Pinheiro was pressed under cross-examination about whether he accurately remembered the comment, but he told the court he was sure Brand had said "things may have gone a little bit too far" or "I may have taken things a little too far".

The trial continues and is expected to last for six weeks.

Brand was accompanied by his wife Laura to the court on Wednesday.

He rose to fame as a stand-up comedian and became a household name as host of TV shows such as Big Brother's Big Mouth, and with his own radio programmes on stations including BBC Radio 2 and 6 Music.

He went on to establish a Hollywood career, starring in films including Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him To The Greek. In recent years, he has turned to podcasting and now lives in Florida in the United States.