Russell Brand branded a "sexual predator" by prosecutors as rape trial opens at Southwark Crown Court

Russell Brand was described in stark terms by the prosecution on Wednesday as a "ruthless" and "sexual predator" as his trial for rape and sexual assault formally began at Southwark Crown Court in London. The 51-year-old actor and comedian faces three counts of rape, three charges of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault. The allegations, which come from six female complainants, are said to span a decade between 1999 and 2009. Brand denies every charge against him.

Riel Karmy-Jones KC, appearing for the prosecution, told the jury that the women at the centre of the case "did not know each other", "have never met each other" and "came forward independently of each other". That assertion is likely to be central to the Crown's case, since it seeks to counter any suggestion that the complainants coordinated their accounts or were influenced by one another before approaching investigators.

The barrister characterised the alleged offending as extraordinarily broad in its range, telling the court that "the circumstances of the offending were as wide and as varied as the defendant's career". She argued that "regardless of who the women were and what they said or did, Brand was not deterred", adding that "his desire, strong desire, for some form of sexual contact was indiscriminate and voracious". The prosecution's opening presented a portrait of a man whose conduct, it alleges, remained consistent across different settings and different women over many years.

Jurors were told that Brand could present two very different faces. According to the prosecution, he would be "nice when he wanted to be, funny - undoubtedly - charming, likeable even, when he wanted something in return". But he would also be, the court heard, "demanding, entitled, a flirt with a huge sexual appetite - childlike in his expectation that his every desire should be met". The prosecution further alleged that after encounters he would "appear indifferent, normal and untroubled by what had just occurred", sometimes leaving promptly, sometimes making an excuse to get away, and sometimes simply carrying on as though nothing wrong had happened.

Brand attended court on Wednesday alongside his wife, Laura, the pair photographed holding hands as they walked past a group of photographers behind a red barrier outside the building. A court sketch showed him seated in the dock wearing a dark suit with an open white shirt. The trial, one of the most closely watched in recent British legal history, is expected to examine allegations reaching back more than two decades to the earliest years of his public career.

The jury heard details of each complainant's account. The first woman says she met Brand in 1999, before he became famous, after attending a Labour Party conference and speaking to him at a fringe event. She alleges he later raped her. When police questioned Brand about that allegation, the prosecution said, he responded that if it happened he did not remember the incident, that he did not recall the complainant's name, and that he had "never engaged in non-consensual activity".

The second complainant was working for MTV at the time when, she says, Brand indecently assaulted her. She told investigators that Brand asked her where the toilets were and she offered to show him. When they reached the toilets, prosecutors say, he asked her to "come in" before grabbing her forearm. She described struggling and pulling back, while he had what she called a desperate, wild-eyed look on his face as he said: "Please please come in - oh go on."

A third complainant says Brand orally raped her in a toilet after they met at a party in 2004. The jury was told that within a minute of meeting, in the middle of a conversation, he lurched forward and grabbed her breasts with both hands. The prosecution said the woman remembered a "big, weird grin" on his face as he did so, before he grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the toilets. The same woman alleged that as they were driving to another venue, Brand exposed himself and said, "Come on, come on, suck it", to which she replied, "No no". According to the prosecution, he simply laughed but appeared to accept her refusal.

The fourth complainant says Brand pushed her up against a wall at Capital Radio in 2004 or 2005, kissing her "sloppily and aggressively" and grabbing her body at her breasts, sides and buttocks. She was able to push him away, and the prosecutor said he "just sniggered, like it was a joke". The account adds to the prosecution's broader claim that the alleged behaviour continued across widely differing professional environments.

The fifth complainant says she met Brand when he was performing at the Hammersmith Apollo in London in 2009. The prosecution said their encounter began with consensual activity but that he raped her anally on a later occasion. The jury heard the woman "spent months and years blaming herself", becoming anxious and unwell. The court was told Brand texted her after seeing her at an event the following summer, saying: "I wanna push you further." She is said to have replied: "I think you pushed me far enough - you treated me like an animal", to which he allegedly responded: "I'm sorry."

The sixth complainant, who has accused Brand of sexual assault, says he demanded a massage when she was on a work assignment in 2009. According to the prosecution, he "fell to his knees and placed his head directly into her groin area". After the accounts of the final two women were heard, the prosecutor said Brand told police in 2023 that he had never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity and that any accounts had been reinvented or imagined after a defamatory documentary and subsequent press reporting.

On Wednesday afternoon, Brand's former flatmate Mark Pinheiro became the first witness to give evidence. Pinheiro told jurors that Brand had told him he may have gone a "bit too far" with a woman. The trial continues, and the BBC is producing a daily podcast, "Fame Under Fire: Russell Brand on Trial", covering proceedings as they unfold.