Russell Brand ‘snapped from nice to nasty as he groped and raped women’

Russell Brand “snapped” from charming to nasty as he raped and sexually assaulted women before gaslighting them into believing nothing was wrong, the prosecutor told his trial.

Prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones KC said six different women who do not know each other had come forward to accuse Brand of attacking them over the course of a decade.

In her closing speech, she told jurors at Southwark Crown Court the women had not been compelled to come forward by a “magic force” of media reporting on Brand’s alleged misconduct, but had instead been seeking “closure” by speaking to police.

Their encounters with Brand had “haunted them for years”, said Ms Karmy-Jones, and she pointed out they described a similar pattern of behaviour from the comedian that started with compliments, flattery and flirting before a “personality change”.

She said: “His eyes changed, he snapped, from charming to frightening to nasty.”

Ms Karmy-Jones said the women had claimed Brand “didn’t listen when (they) said no, he didn’t stop, he didn’t care, pulling, pushing, tugging, thrusting”.

“In the rape cases, he kept on going until he achieved his ultimate aim.”

The prosecutor also pointed jurors to several accounts by the women of Brand giving them his phone number or email address in the aftermath of the alleged attacks.

“Today it’s something that might be known as gaslighting,” she said.

“A technique the defendant used to good effect.”

Brand denies three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault, and one charge of attempted indecent assault.

Ms Karmy-Jones told jurors: “In this trial you have seen six different women, wholly unconnected with each other, come before you and tell you what happened to them at the hands of Russell Brand.

“These women who finally made their decision to speak, call police, are wholly independent of each other. They don’t even know who the other women in this case are.”

She said they had given “vivid” accounts of the alleged offences, and told the jury: “Six women who have nothing to gain, who have not sought the limelight, who have not looked out for some form of publicity, who have not taken part in a documentary, not made claims for compensation.

“There is no benefit to them, apart from perhaps some closure by coming before you and telling you their accounts of what happened to them so long ago.”

Part of Brand’s defence is that he has faced the criminal allegations after being wrongly accused by other women in the media, in a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary and Sunday Times reporting, in 2023.

Ms Karmy-Jones suggested there was no “woo woo” or “magic force” from the media reports that had sparked the women to come forward.

“Could a documentary or an article in The Times cause them to completely reinvent what happened in this way?” she asked.

Turning to a woman who says she was raped in a hotel room at the Labour Party conference by Brand, Ms Karmy-Jones asked the jury to carefully assess her evidence.

She said: “Is that woman some sort of lunatic who would make this story up, reimagine this event after watching a documentary?”

The prosecutor added that the woman said in her evidence that she had not even watched the full Dispatches documentary.

An MTV worker has accused Brand of trying to drag her into a toilet at work in 2001 when he was one of the channel’s star presenters, but she said she managed to wrench herself away.

She gave evidence that the incident lasted for 20 seconds, and the prosecutor pulled out a stopwatch during her speech to show jurors how long the incident had lasted.

The court fell silent for 20 seconds, as the prosecutor told jurors to “take a moment” and imagine how long the woman said she was “being pulled into a lavatory”.

At the end, she said: “Pulling, not just a gentle grab of the arm and a ‘come in’. Twenty seconds of this.”

Brand is accused of groping another MTV worker’s breasts in a Soho bar in 2004, then forcing the woman into oral sex after dragging her to a toilet.

He is accused of kissing and groping a radio worker in 2005 in front of members of his entourage, in an incident she described in evidence as “frenzied”, “violent” and “rough”.

The woman had faced questions from Brand’s lawyer about not reporting the incident to her bosses at the time, but the prosecutor highlighted that witnesses are said to have either laughed or done nothing to help her.

Jurors should consider the “toxic way women were treated” 22 years ago, she suggested.

Brand is also accused of sexually assaulting a Channel 4 staffer in 2009 by thrusting his head into her lap when the comedian’s aides had forced her to give him a massage.

And he is alleged to have raped a 21-year-old fan in 2009 after meeting her at one of his Hammersmith Apollo stand-up performances.

Ms Karmy-Jones’s speech was momentarily interrupted on Friday morning when court staff had to rouse a member of the public who had fallen asleep and started snoring.

Brand gave evidence on Wednesday, saying consent is “more important than sex itself” and denying forcing any of the women into sexual activity.

He told the court it was “devastating” when he was first accused of rape and sexual misconduct in 2023 media reporting by The Times, The Sunday Times, and Channel 4 Dispatches.

Under questioning, Brand conceded he blames the media “in some ways” for the criminal charges he now faces.

The trial continues.