Prosecutors have told the Russell Brand trial that he allegedly changed from charming to threatening before raping and sexually assaulting women, then used their continued contact with him to make them question whether anything was wrong.
Riel Karmy-Jones said six women who did not know one another had independently come forward to accuse the comedian of offences over a decade. Brand denies three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one count of attempted indecent assault.
In her closing speech at the London trial, Ms Karmy-Jones said the women had not been driven to contact police by a “magic force” created by media reports about Brand’s alleged misconduct. Instead, she said, they had been seeking closure after their encounters with him had “haunted them for years”.
The prosecutor told jurors that the accounts followed a similar pattern. She said the alleged encounters began with compliments, flattery and flirting before Brand’s behaviour changed.
“His eyes changed, he snapped, from charming to frightening to nasty,” she said.
Ms Karmy-Jones said the women had described Brand ignoring their objections and continuing despite them saying no. “He didn’t listen when (they) said no, he didn’t stop, he didn’t care, pulling, pushing, tugging, thrusting,” she told the jury.
She said that in the rape allegations, Brand “kept on going until he achieved his ultimate aim”. The prosecutor also highlighted accounts in which Brand allegedly gave women his phone number or email address after the incidents.
“Today it’s something that might be known as gaslighting,” Ms Karmy-Jones said. “A technique the defendant used to good effect.”
One woman, who worked for MTV, has accused Brand of trying to pull her into a workplace toilet in 2001, when he was a presenter for the channel. She told the court she managed to wrench herself away after the incident lasted about 20 seconds.
During her closing speech, the prosecutor used a stopwatch and asked jurors to remain silent for 20 seconds, inviting them to consider how long the woman said she had been pulled towards the toilet.
“Pulling, not just a gentle grab of the arm and a ‘come in’. Twenty seconds of this,” she said.
Brand gave evidence earlier in the trial, telling the court that consent was “more important than sex itself” and denying that he had forced any of the women into sexual activity. He said it had been “devastating” when he was first accused of rape and sexual misconduct in media reports in 2023.
The trial continues.
