LAST UPDATE | 16 Oct

RUSSELL BRAND TURNED into a “wild-eyed maniac” as he tried to drag a TV worker into a toilet for a sexual encounter, a court heard.

The woman said Brand grabbed her arm and pleaded with her to join him in the men’s toilet, as she pulled back and managed to “wrench” herself free.

Looking back at the 2001 incident, she told Southwark Crown Court Brand was “affable” at first, but “suddenly turned into this wild-eyed maniac trying to pull me into the toilet”.

Questioned why she did not report the incident to police at the time or mention it to her bosses, she pointed out that Brand was one of MTV’s star presenters at the time.

“There he is, one of the big assets at MTV and I have got a mortgage to pay so why make it hard for myself?” she said.

“It would have been my word against his, I had a job to consider, I came away relatively unscathed, and he didn’t rape me.

“I managed to get myself out of the situation and I wanted a quiet life.”

Brand is on trial accused of three rapes, three sexual assaults, and an allegation of indecent assault.

The 51-year-old is accused of indecently assaulting the former MTV worker when they came across each other in 2001, and briefly exchanged words after she complimented his “I am Spartacus” t-shirt.

‘His manner changed’

She told jurors Brand asked for directions to the men’s toilets, and she “pointed him in the direction” before showing him the way.

“His manner changed,” she said.

“He grabbed my forearm and he was leaning into the door. It was quite forceful, the grip. It took me unawares, I wasn’t expecting that.”

She recalled Brand’s “hard” grip on her arm, and said he was “pleading” with her to join him in the toilet.

“He was trying to pull me into the bathroom and I was trying to pull myself away,” she said.

“I said to him ‘what are you doing? Are you mad? Let me go. Then he started to plead, almost ‘go on, go on, come in’.”

She added: “He had what I would call a wild look in his eyes.

“I might have called him an idiot.”

Court sketch of Russell Brand and barrister Riel Carney-Jones KC listening to witness evidence at Southwark Crown Court. Alamy Stock Photo

Brand’s barrister, Ian Winter KC, suggested the woman had reassessed her memory of the incident after seeing a 2023 Dispatches documentary which accused the comedian of sexual misconduct.

She replied: “I always knew it was wrong. That didn’t change my mind.”

She said she decided to go to police in 2023 because it was “the right thing to do”, and rejected suggestions from Winter that Brand had been seeking a consensual encounter and stopped when it was clear that she did not want it.

She told him: “You don’t drag someone by the arm, not in my world anyway.

“You don’t grip someone to drag them in, that’s not consensual.”

She added that she “wrenched” herself out of Brand’s grip, and suggested that she may have been stronger than he had expected her to be.

Asked how she felt after the alleged attack by Brand, the alleged victim said: “Bewildered, confused, ‘what the hell happened there?’.”

‘Huge preoccupation’ with sex

Earlier today, the court heard from two men who were once part of a theatre troupe with Brand.

Andrew Dobson, who also lived with Brand, told Southwark Crown Court: “[Brand] was a very vibrant character, very egotistical I would say, lively, sort of quite demanding and persuading.

“I would also say I used to find him, I think, erratic might be a slightly better term. Hard to predict.”

Asked to describe Brand’s general behaviour on social occasions, he said: “I think sex was a huge preoccupation for him.

“I do recall clearly nights where the pursuit of ultimately getting somebody into bed would have been a preoccupation.”

Brand is accused of raping a woman he had met after performing in a satirical cabaret show at the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth in 1999.

Dobson, who composed the music for the show, said their final show ended calamitously with a small fire on stage, which “almost summed up the week a bit” after a series of sparsely populated audiences.

He remembers the troupe returning to their accommodation without Brand, who reappeared the following morning.

“I recall Russell coming in and there suddenly being an urgency to leave”, he said, describing the “hurried” manner that they left the accommodation.

I only remember the atmosphere and almost a panicked urgency and it feeling tense and confusing. I didn’t really understand why.

On Thursday, the woman who has accused Brand of rape at the conference that year gave evidence that he had turned “monster-like” and forced her down on to a bed, and afterwards acted as if nothing had happened.

She said they had a friendly chat at the show, when she mistakenly believed he was gay, and she invited him to her hotel room to continue their conversation.

Statements from two friends of the woman were also read to the court on Friday by prosecutor Suki Dhadda, detailing when they were told about the allegation of rape.

One, a journalist, said she got a phone call “out of the blue” from the woman in 2023 after Brand had been publicly accused of sexual misconduct in a TV documentary and newspaper articles.

The journalist said in her statement: “She told me she went to the bathroom, and when she returned Russell Brand was in his underwear.

“She was completely shocked and told me he had made me take photographs of him.”

She added: “It was then I was told by her she was raped by Russell Brand.

“She said she was utterly confused as she thought he was gay and being friendly.”

The second friend said she learned about the allegation in a WhatsApp message in December 2024, when the woman said of Brand: “Everyone seems to think he’s amazing.”

Brand denies all the charges he faces, and is set to argue that consensual sexual encounters have been “reimagined” in recent years.

As he arrived at court on Friday morning with his wife Laura Gallacher, Brand told waiting journalists: “Obviously it’s an extraordinary and stressful situation but it is also an exploration of truth and justice and as I’ve said before I pray for everybody involved.

“It’s in a way very, very sad but hopefully it can bring about some conclusions that are beneficial.”

He faces allegations that he raped a woman in a Soho bar toilet, sexually assaulted women he came across in radio and TV studios, and allegedly raped a woman after they met at one of his stand-up shows.

The trial continues.