Russell Brand Accuser Says She 'Just Closed My Eyes and Tried Not to Be There' During Alleged Sexual Assault in Toilet: 'I Don't Want to Do This'

A woman who has accused Russell Brand of r--- said she “just closed my eyes and tried not to be there” as Brand allegedly r----- her in the toilet of a Soho bar in 2004.

The jurors at Brand’s trial at Southwark Crown Court in London watched her recorded police interview on Monday, October 19, prior to hearing from the woman herself.

In the 2023 interview, the woman, who was in her 20s and employed by MTV at the time, said she had met Brand at a birthday celebration. At this meeting, they spoke about Brand’s position as host of Channel 4’s Big Brother’s Big Mouth. “It was a normal conversation about him being on Big Brother,” she said. “He just moved towards (me) and grabbed both my b----.”

She noted Brand’s “big grin” during the encounter, which she said, “felt like a clown.” She told the officer the toilets were directly behind where Brand had been standing. “It was literally just grab and pull,” she said.

The woman claimed Brand took her into a toilet with a flooded floor and forced her to perform a s-- act. “I just closed my eyes and tried not to be there. I just remember it felt like a force. I definitely said I don’t want to do this,” she stated in the interview.

She told police the alleged r--- was “swift,” leaving her “in disbelief and shock.” She added that afterward, Brand acted as if nothing had happened. “He turned to me and said, ‘Oh, I guess we should swap numbers now,’ like it was just all normal, like he hadn’t just forced me to do that,” she explained.

The woman broke down in tears while testifying in person before the jury. The woman told jurors that Brand was very heavy, and she could neither catch her breath nor defend herself from the alleged attack. According to a report, she estimated that the alleged assault may have gone on for as long as 10 minutes.

The woman explained why she went nearly 20 years without going to the police, testifying that she feared how others would react. “I would be ostracised in my work environment or friends,” she said. The woman testified that she eventually confided in a friend that Brand had “tried to do it,” but she didn’t tell her friend that he had “succeeded.” In 2023, the woman finally reported the alleged r--- after viewing a social media post referencing a documentary on Brand.

Ian Winter, Brand’s barrister, suggested during his cross-examination that the woman went to the lavatory with Brand for “a kiss and a cuddle” and that they abandoned any sexual encounter when they were appalled by how dirty and flooded it was. The woman rejected the suggestion that she had happily gone with Brand and said she wasn’t charmed by him at all. Winter also suggested the woman had wanted to join Brand in a small bedsit, which she strongly denied.

Brand, 51, has pleaded not guilty to seven charges involving six women, including three counts of r---, three counts of sexual assault, and one count of indecent assault. The alleged offenses are said to have occurred over a 10-year period from 1999 to 2009. Brand has said any sexual contact, if it happened, would have been consensual. The trial is expected to last about six weeks, according to a report.