Russell Brand branded a "sexual predator" as rape and sexual assault trial opens at Southwark Crown Court

Russell Brand was characterised as "ruthless" and a "sexual predator" by prosecutors on Wednesday as his trial for rape and sexual assault formally began at Southwark Crown Court in London, opening one of the most closely watched celebrity cases in recent British legal history.

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 are brought by six female complainants and are said to span a decade, covering conduct between 1999 and 2009. Brand denies every charge against him.

Opening the case for the Crown, Riel Karmy-Jones KC told the jury that the women at the centre of the prosecution "did not know each other", "have never met each other" and "came forward independently of each other" — an assertion likely to be central to the Crown's argument that the complaints are not the product of collusion or collective recollection.

The barrister drew a striking parallel between the breadth of Brand's public career and the alleged offending, 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," describing what she called an "indiscriminate and voracious" desire for sexual contact.

In a passage that will shape jurors' impressions of the defendant's character, Karmy-Jones said Brand could be "nice when he wanted to be, funny — undoubtedly — charming, likeable even, when he wanted something in return." She contrasted that public-facing warmth with a private disposition she described as "demanding, entitled, a flirt with a huge sexual appetite — childlike in his expectation that his every desire should be met."

The prosecutor also addressed Brand's alleged conduct after encounters, suggesting he would "appear indifferent, normal and untroubled by what had just occurred." In some instances, she said, he would leave promptly or find an excuse to get away, while on other occasions he would simply carry on "as though nothing wrong had happened."

The jury was then taken through the accounts of each complainant in turn. The first woman told investigators she met Brand in 1999, before he became famous, having encountered him at a fringe event during the Labour Party conference. She alleges he later raped her. When police questioned Brand about the allegation, the court heard he said that "if it happened, he didn't remember the incident," that he could not recall the woman's name, and that he had "never engaged in non-consensual activity."

A second complainant, who worked for MTV at the time, alleges Brand indecently assaulted her. According to the prosecution, he asked where the toilets were and accepted her offer to show him. Once there, prosecutors say, he asked her to "come in" and grabbed her forearm. She described resisting by struggling and pulling back, and recalled a desperate, wild-eyed expression as he said: "Please please come in – oh go on."

A third woman alleges that Brand orally raped her in a toilet after they met at a party in 2004. The jury heard that within a minute of meeting, and in the middle of a conversation, he lurched forward and squeezed her breasts with both hands, wearing what she remembered as a "big, weird grin." She says he then took her arm and pulled her towards the toilets. The same complainant alleged that while they were driving to another venue he exposed himself and said, "Come on, come on, suck it," to which she replied, "No no." The prosecution said he laughed but appeared to accept her refusal.

The fourth complainant alleges Brand pushed her against a wall at Capital Radio in 2004 or 2005 and kissed her "sloppily and aggressively," while grabbing her body at the breasts, sides and buttocks. She told the court she managed to push him away, and that he "just sniggered, like it was a joke."

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

A sixth complainant, who accuses Brand of sexual assault, says he demanded a massage while she was on a work assignment in 2009 and "fell to his knees and placed his head directly into her groin area."

After outlining the final two accounts, the prosecutor told jurors that when Brand was interviewed by police in 2023 he maintained "he has never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity," and that any accounts had been "reinvented or imagined after a defamatory documentary and subsequent press reporting."

Proceedings on Wednesday afternoon moved to defence evidence, with Brand's former flatmate Mark Pinheiro becoming the first witness to testify. Pinheiro told the jury that Brand had once said he may have gone "a bit too far" with a woman. Brand's wife, Laura, accompanied him to court, and the defendant was pictured in the dock in a court sketch wearing a dark suit and open white shirt.

The trial continues, and the BBC is producing a daily podcast, "Fame Under Fire: Russell Brand on Trial," available on BBC Sounds, YouTube, iPlayer and other podcast platforms.