A fan's account of a 2009 meeting
The jury at Southwark Crown Court watched a two-hour police interview recorded in 2024 with a woman known as Complainant 5, who has a lifelong right to anonymity. She wept repeatedly while recounting how she first encountered Russell Brand at a comedy performance at the Hammersmith Apollo in 2009, where she said she found him interesting, articulate and willing to discuss subjects others avoided.[S1]
According to her account, she was invited upstairs for drinks and performed oral sex on him consensually, while telling him she did not want penetrative intercourse. She expected no further contact, but Brand kept messaging, and she eventually agreed to visit his house in Hampstead, north London, where a driver took her and an associate of his let her in.[S1]
She recalled Brand coming downstairs and telling her that coming there was the best decision she had ever made. The court heard the interview played on video so that she would not have to repeat her account in the courtroom itself.[S1]
The alleged attack and its aftermath
Complainant 5 said Brand's manner shifted while they kissed on his bed, when he remarked that her hair smelled and that she should shower, words she said made her feel dirty. She described initially consensual intercourse with a condom that she did not enjoy, saying she felt interchangeable. She then alleged that he turned her onto her front, inserted his fingers into her anus and raped her anally, causing severe pain.[S1]
She alleged that Brand spoke of wanting her to feel his semen and ejaculated inside her anus, at which point she realised the condom had been removed. Afterwards, she said, he appeared horrified and told her to clean up the mess she had made before leaving the room, while his associate told her she could go whenever she was ready because Brand had another show to perform.[S1][S2]
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That evening she told her flatmate what had happened and was in such pain that she had to sit on an ice cube tray, later learning she had an anal tear. She feared she had contracted HIV and tested negative. She said she wanted to leave the experience behind and wondered whether such behaviour was routine for him.[S1]
Cross-examination and the years in between
Under questioning from Brand's lawyer Ian Winter, Complainant 5, who gave evidence from behind a screen, said she had carried guilt and shame for years. Winter pressed her repeatedly on whether she had consented to anal as well as vaginal sex, and she denied it, saying that agreeing to go somewhere does not make the outcome consensual and that the subject had never been discussed.[S1]
The court heard that the summer after the alleged rape she saw Brand from a distance at an event during the Edinburgh Festival, and that he texted her saying she was dirty and he wanted to push her further. She replied that he had pushed her far enough and had treated her like an animal, after which he apologised quickly and the exchange ended. Asked why she never told him he had raped her, she said giving that answer was very difficult.[S1]
She said she struggled with alcohol addiction and entered rehab in 2023, where she disclosed the incident, around the time Channel 4 broadcast its documentary about Brand. She is the last of the accusers to testify; the prosecution says all six came forward after the programme and none of them know one another. Brand faces three rape charges, three sexual assault charges and one indecent assault charge, denies everything and is expected to set out his defence later in the trial.[S1][S2]
