‘Brand had a maniacal grin as he assaulted MTV employee’

An MTV employee told a court Russell Brand had a ‘maniacal grin’ and acted like a ‘clown’ when he sexually assaulted in her in a West End bar.

Russell Brand, 51, allegedly pounced on the woman in her 20s in the Nordic bar, a Scandinavian sports bar in Fitzrovia.

The woman said Brand, who had been filming earlier in the day, grabbed her breasts with both hands then dragged her into a toilet where he forced her to have oral sex and said ‘don’t be a spoilsport’ to her protests.

Later while she was ‘in shock’, she was ‘steered’ to his car where he exposed himself en route to another club.

The comedian, film star and podcaster denies three counts of rape, three of sexual assault and one of indecent assault against six women from 1999 to 2009.

In video evidence played to jurors at Southwark Crown Court, the woman – referred to as Ms C to protect her identity – is interviewed by a female Metropolitan Police detective constable, Laura Kent.

She told the officer: ‘It was sometime in July. At the time I worked at MTV and one of my colleagues was having a party for his birthday and I got invited.

‘It was a place called the Nordic Bar in Soho.

‘And I was working in an office just round the corner in Oxford Street where there is one of MTV’s offices

‘There were lots of people there. It waS really, really busy.’.

She said over the course of the evening she had ‘six or seven’ vodka limes and soda and said she heard Russell Brand ‘was coming along.’

She said she had been watching the reality show Big Brother – and the spin off show, Big Brother’s Big Mouth, which Brand presented.

She said: ‘I thought he’s really fujnny on that,’ and asked a friend to introduce her.

She said ‘quite a bit later Russell Brand turned up and I found myself talking to him.

Describing the indecent assault she said: ‘Literally I was talking to him for 30 seconds – one minute max.

‘I don’t recall the conversation. he literally just grabbed my boobs out of nowheree in the middle of the conversation.

‘I just remember this weird maniacal grin in front of me I was really shocked.

‘He literally grabbed my arm and dragged me into the toilets.

‘The toilets were quite close.

‘I didn’t know what was going on. It was really really quick He dragged me in the toilets. He locked the door.

‘The floor was flooded. He stood on the toilet seat. It happened so fast he held me.

‘He unzipped himself and put his penis in my mouth and held me there.

‘I pushed him off. He said “Come on, Come on.”

‘He kept pushing my head down. I tried to make him let go.

Sobbing she told the officer: ‘I just froze. I didn’t know what to do.

‘He ejaculated in my mouth and sort of let me go. I went to the door banging on the door.

‘I remember some guy saying are you OK.

She continued: ‘Russell Brand casually walked over and unlocked it. I just walked out.

‘I was in a state.’

Back in the bar she said ‘I don’t know what happened I was there just walking around, I was numb whalking around trying to find somebody that I knew.

‘The next thing I knew I was being steered into this car, in the bAck of this car and Russel Brand got in and sat next to me.

‘He was talking. It was his official driver. I guess it was Endemol producing Big Brother at the time.’

En route to an Indie Club, Camden Barfly, Chalk Farm Road.

She said: ‘I was just looking out of the window in a daze. Just trying to compute what had happened I was in disbelief and think I felt a nudge.

‘And he had his penis out again in the car. There were two guys in the front.

‘He was like, “Come on, Come on. Suck it.’

‘I don’t know if they witnessed that. They can’t have not witnessed that going on.’

On arrival at Barfly she said she left the club.

‘I remember walking around Camden in a daze and one of my colleagues..I called him.

‘I didn’t tell him the extent of what happened,’ and said that Russell Brand attempted to put his penis in her mouth, without giving the full details.

She added she thought ‘I could have stopped it? I don’t know.’

She said: ‘I didn’t tell anyone until literally three days ago. I just didn’t admit it to myself or anyone that it happened.

Detailing the first conversation with Brand, she said she remembered telling Brand. ‘I really like Big Brother. I think you are really funny on it.

‘It was less than a minute. That was my real shock. This person was touching my breast within one minute of talking to me.

‘He just literally loomed towards me with both hands grabbing at my breast. That was the first it was definitely less than a minute.

Describing her feelings she said: ‘He’s tall, and I’m 5ft 3ins, I’m small, he was looming over me.’

‘She added the thing she remembered ‘was this big grin. It felt like a clown…that weird look in the eye.

‘One minute it was a normal conversation, there wasn’t any sexual flirting it was a normal conversation about him being on Big Brother, there was no suggestion or anything like that.

‘It was a real shock. He just moved towards me and grabbed both of my boobs with both hands and let go.

‘And he grab bed my arm and just pulled me,’ she added.

‘It was so quick.’

Asked what she was wearing, she said, she didn’t wear ‘little skimpy outfits, I’d have been at work all day.

I would have been in a dress of some sort. Nothing like boobs hanging out. I didn’t dress like that.

‘It would have been some summery dress even jeans and a top.’

She said Russell Brand’s grab was over her clothing.

‘It didn’t hurt but it was just like a ‘grab, squeeeze’ like that.

‘I was completely shocked. I just felt like really out of place.’

She added: ‘I Was reeling from shock….I didn’t know how to process it.

‘It was what you would call playful but it wasn’t playful to me because I didn’t know that person. It was just really strange and bizarre and shocking.’

She said the toilets were a short distance from the bar.

‘I remember it was a grab and pull. He was holding me quite strongly on the arm and he pulled me in that direction.’

She said the toilet floor was ‘flooded’ and ‘before I knew it he pushed my head down. I felt in a moment of seconds.

‘He jumped on the toilet, ‘ because ‘he didn’t want to get his shoes all wet,’ she said she thought.

She added: ‘He said, “Don’t be a spoilsport.”‘

‘It happened so quickly it felt like seconds.

‘He was stood on the toilet seat’ and ‘crouched down in some way.’

‘He was pulling my head and hair. First of all he was holding on to my arm but then he was holding on to my head and hair,’ which would have been at least shoulder length.

She added: ‘It felt like a force. Everytime I tried to move away … it was strong.

‘I definitely said “What are you doing , I don’t want to do this.

‘He was saying, “come on, come on”.

‘It wasn’t threatening, it wasn’t in any way threatening. The force of it and the look in his eyes were threatening but the words weren’t if that makes sense.

‘It’s just hard to describe.’

She added: I didn’t feel like my life was in danger…I don’t know,’ she added that perhaps she felt that ‘because he’s a famous person’.

‘I don’t know if that’s why I didn’t feel he would kill me if I don’t do what he says.’

She added: ‘I’ve got quite a small head and I really felt that pressure on my head and I couldn’t move it.

She said in her mind she was thinking she was going to ‘fight, fight,’ but added: ‘I just felt I couldn’t though. I don’t know why.’

She said his tone was ‘Laddy. “Come on. You want it”, talk.

‘There was lots of pushing…right to the back of my throat.

‘He wasn’t very well endowed…was average size but he was definitely trying to push it as far as he could and hold my head there.’

‘He was pushing my head in as far as he could, thrusting himself into me.’

Asked what was going through her mind, she said: ‘Part of me was “Just get over and done with. The other half was saying just fight it.’

‘If I just do this maybe he won’t rape me and maybe this will just satisfy him.’

‘I think I just closed my eyes and not be there.

‘He just stood up. I remember him standing up and I said can I go now and he just walked over,’ to the door.

‘I was just banging on the door. I can’t remember where the lock was . I remember my hands were just shaking.

‘He just came and unlocked the door. I just couldn’t physically do it.’

‘He opened the door and I just went out. I went to the street. He followed me.

‘He said, “Aha. I guess we should swap numbers now,’

She said she thought she should phone someone.

‘I don’t think he even knew my name.’

Cross examined by Ian Winter, KC, Ms C said she was not ‘excited’ or ‘starstruck’ on meeting Russell Brand.

She was asked for a precise date in July 2004 when the alleged rape was taken.

‘I can’t say for certain but it probably was a Friday night, I don’t remember going to work the following day.’

She said her purse was stolen in the early hours of 17th July at 1am at a bus stop on Oxford Street ‘but that was a different weekend.’

‘I was making my way home from Camden not Centrepoint.’

‘It may not even have been that weekend. It may have been the weekend after that, it might have been the weekend before.’

‘I can’t remember exactly when the event was.’

My recollection of my purse being stolen was not from that evening.

Mr Winter said: ‘Do you have much recall of that evening? You did not tell a single person you had been raped by Mr Brand until September 2023.

Ms C said she did have good recall.

Mr Winter said: ‘You were drunk on the evening.. of the party. ‘You were “gone” but not falling over.

She replied: ‘I wasn’t drunk where I don’t remember.

‘I wasn’t drunk where I lost control, how I presented myself, I wasn’t paralytic.

‘I was probably past “tipsy”, “tipsy” was two or three drinks. I probably had six drinks,’ or seven, she added.

‘I was merry. I wasn’t drunk, I wasn’t falling all over the place, slurring my words.

‘I was in the middle of that scale.’

She denied she was ‘very excited’ that Brand was going.

‘I’d worked in media for many years, I worked with numerous famous people, I wasn’t starstruck.’

‘I’d suggest you were ‘extremely excited,’ Ms C said.

She replied: ‘I wasn’t extremely excited’. I wasn’t a giddy schoolgirl. It wasn’t that I was excited by the prospect,’ of meeting Brand.

In cross examination, Mr Winter asked Ms C: ‘why she didn’t tell a single human being until she rang police on 17 September 2023,’ after the events of July 2024.

Ms C said she told her sister and her friend.

‘I told more (people) than my sister about him grabbing my breasts, I told other people as well.

‘I told my close friends and family that he grabbed my arm and held me but I got away.

She added that she ‘can’t remember’ exactly what she told her male friend but thinks she said ‘he tried to assault me.’

Mr Winter said: ‘When it happened there were potentially witnesses to it who could have supported your evidence.’

Ms C said she ‘didn’t recall’ seeing anybody in the bar area when Brand grabbed her breasts.

She replied ‘she wasn’t thinking like a police person…I wasn’t thinking about having witnesses, that was not what was going through my head when it is happening. You’re thinking “Survival”.

Mr Winter said: ‘Let’s be very clear about this, he didn’t do that to you.’

She replied: ‘He did do that to me.’

‘And you didn’t tell anybody at all until September 2023.’

She said: ‘That’s not correct.’

She also said: ‘I did say “Get off” and when he was trying to grab me into the toilets.

‘I told him I didn’t want to do anything.’

Mr Winter suggested: ‘You took his hand when he said let’s just go in there for a kiss or a cuddle.

‘You just took his hand and walked there which is why nobody would have noticed anything.

He continued: ‘It would have been perfectly easy for you to struggle , kick off about it, shout about it and any number of people would immediately come to your help.

‘But you didn’t do any of that.’

She said she didn’t agree. Mr Winter said that Ms C also did not say she was ‘dragged’ to the cubicle to her male friend or to her father who she told Brand ‘had led her into the toilets.’

Ms C said she did not remember saying that and added ‘I would not have used the word “led”.’

Mr Winter said: ‘Let me put it to you. You were happy doing that because you were very excited, no doubt charmed by him.

Ms C said: ‘I wasn’t charmed and excited, I met this person for less than a minute before they sexually assaulted me.’

Earlier, explaining why she reported Brand to police in 2023 she said:

‘I wanted to support all the other women who had come forward and have a nicer world for my daughter to grow up in . I would never want her to go through what I did.’

mfl

ends