Russell Brand accuser denies being ‘giddy starstruck schoolgirl’ with TV star

A TV worker who says she was raped by Russell Brand has insisted she “wasn’t a giddy schoolgirl” during her encounter with the star in a central London bar.

The woman claims Brand groped her breasts within seconds of meeting her at the Nordic Bar in Soho, before allegedly dragging her to a toilet and forcing her into a sex act.

Brand denies rape and sexual assault, and claims the 2004 encounter was consensual but has now been “re-imagined”.

Under cross-examination, the woman told Southwark Crown Court she was not “charmed” by Brand and she denied being particularly “excited” to meet him.

She said: “I’d worked with numerous famous people, I wasn’t starstruck.”

When Brand’s barrister, Ian Winter KC, suggested she had been excited when told Brand – who was “becoming a superstar” – was coming to the bar, she replied: “No, I wasn’t extremely excited, I wasn’t a giddy schoolgirl.

“It wasn’t like I was waiting for him to get there and I was excited by the prospect.”

She insisted she “was not charmed in the slightest” by the TV presenter, adding: “I’d met this person for less than a minute when they sexually assaulted me.”

The woman, who worked for MTV, said Brand had a weird grin “like a clown” as he grabbed her breasts during the party in 2004.

She claims he then dragged her by the arm to a toilet, jumped on a closed toilet lid, and forced her to perform oral sex.

During cross-examination, Mr Winter told the woman: “It would have been perfectly easy for you to struggle, any number of people would have come to your rescue.”

The woman replied: “I don’t agree.”

She added: “I said he dragged me in there. I wouldn’t use the word ‘led’ because I was dragged in there, it was against my will.

“I think that when somebody is towering over you, grabbing your arm really hard, is dragging you, within seconds you’re locked in a room with them. It’s hard when someone’s gripping you and you’re small, it’s hard to get away from that person.

“I did say: ‘Get off from me’ and I didn’t want to do anything.”

Mr Winter suggested the woman could have “slapped him in the face” for groping her, to which she replied: “I was completely in shock, that someone I had been speaking to for 30 seconds would do that.”

The barrister told the court Brand denies grabbing the woman’s breasts in the bar area at all.

Earlier, the woman’s recorded interview with police was played to jurors, in which she accused Brand of saying “don’t be a spoilsport” as he was raping her.

She said she “froze” and closed her eyes, waiting for it to finish, and observed to police about Brand’s manhood: “He wasn’t very well endowed, that’s my memory of that.

“He was average, average size.”

Brand denies seven charges – three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault, and one count of indecent assault.

The trial continues.