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Closing
summary
Mark
Pinheiro has concluded his evidence and jurors have been sent home for the day,
with the trial set to resume at 10am on Thursday.
Here is a
round-up of the day’s headlines from court:
- Russell Brand is a “ruthless and
manipulative” predator who laughed at women when they refused to agree to
his sexual demands, a court has heard. Brand, 51, is accused of forcing women into
sexual acts and kissing and groping them in an “obsessive” campaign to
sleep with 5,000 women.
- One of the alleged victims
claims Brand apologised for treating her “like an animal”, Southwark Crown
Court heard, and another said he told her “don’t be a spoilsport” when she
refused to consent. Some of his accusers say Brand laughed at them after they had tried
to repel his advances, while members of his entourage have been accused of
failing to step in to stop him.
- Prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones KC
dubbed Brand a “sexual predator” who was “ruthless, calculated and
manipulative”,
and said women have told police he was “childlike in his expectation that
his every desire should be met”.
- A woman who met Brand at the
1999 Labour Party conference in Bournemouth alleges she was raped by the
comedian in her hotel room, after he stripped off his clothes and
performed Basil Fawlty-style silly walks like an ostrich. She met Brand at a cabaret show
and initially thought he was gay, the court heard, but back in the hotel
room she alleges he forced her down on to the bed and raped her.
Afterwards he “behaved as if nothing had happened”, said Karmy-Jones.
- Brand’s former friend Mark
Pinheiro told jurors he recalls the comedian “cowering” in the back seat
of the car when he heard police sirens on the drive out of Bournemouth. He gave evidence that Brand did
not come home that night and was “flustered” and eager to leave in the
morning. Pinheiro said Brand told him about sex with a woman, and says he
made the comment: “I think I may have gone a bit too far.”
- A woman who worked at MTV with
Brand alleges he once tried to drag her into a toilet cubicle in the early
2000s after she complimented his “I Am Spartacus” T-shirt. A radio station worker says
Brand “sniggered” after kissing and groping her while members of his
entourage looked on. The alleged incident happened at the radio station in
the mid-2000s, when the woman said she was pushed against a wall and
sexually assaulted in a “fast and frenzied” attack.
- A woman who alleges Brand groped
her breasts in a Soho bar in 2004 says she saw a “big, weird grin” on
Brand’s face afterwards. She alleges he then dragged her into a toilet and raped
her, allegedly ignoring her protestation and saying “come on, don’t be a
spoilsport, you want to”.
- A woman who alleges she was
raped by Brand at his Hampstead home told police she had encountered him
again the following year, and then received an apology by text. She had engaged in consensual
sex with Brand after meeting him at a Hammersmith Apollo stand-up show in
2009, but claims the comedian went on to rape her.
- The final alleged victim, a
Channel 4 worker, has accused Brand of sexual assault as he was filming
for a project in 2009. It is said he was “friendly and nice” in the early stages of the
shoot but grew annoyed, and members of his entourage then suggested the
woman should give Brand a massage. She says she objected but was coerced
into giving the massage, and claims Brand then placed his head directly
into her groin area.
- Brand has pleaded not guilty to
three charges of rape, three counts of sexual assault, and one allegation
of indecent assault, after being accused by six women over alleged
incidents between 1999 and 2009. He says all sexual contact was consensual, and is set
to suggest that his accusers have “reimagined” the encounters they had
with him after seeing media reports of his alleged sexual misconduct.
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