Russell Brand was described in a London court Wednesday as a “ruthless” sexual predator by U.K. prosecutors during opening statements of a court case where he is accused of rape and other sex crimes against six women.
The 51-year-old actor, comedian and podcast host has pleaded not guilty to three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault on charges and alleged offences that occurred between 1999 and 2009.
The six women, who do not know each other, were allegedly assaulted by Brand in “a hotel room, workplaces, a toilet cubicle in a bar and at his home address,” prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones told jurors at Southwark Crown Court in London, the Associated Press reported.
She described Brand as being “indiscriminate and voracious” in his pursuit of sexual contact at the time of the alleged assaults and said he viewed women as a “means to an end.”
She also said Brand was capable of being funny and charming and described him as a “a flirt with a huge sexual appetite — childlike in his expectation that his every desire should be met.”
“He was ruthless, he was calculating, he was manipulative,” she continued.
The earliest assault he is accused of is said to have occurred in 1999, when Brand allegedly raped a woman in a hotel room during a Labour Party conference. Brand, who was a fledgling comedian at the time, was performing in a cabaret production in the coastal town of Bournemouth, where the conference was taking place.
Another victim alleges that two years later, he tried to pull her into the men’s toilet of an office building where she worked.
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“There can be little doubt as to what Mr. Brand’s intention was,” Karmy-Jones said.
A third woman alleges that Brand assaulted her in 2004 in a toilet cubicle of a London bar, and told her not to be a “spoilsport” when she asked him to stop.
The other charges relate to a woman who says Brand kissed and groped her at a London radio station in 2004 or 2005, a then-21-year-old fan who says Brand anally raped her at his home after she met him at one of his shows in 2009; and a woman who says Brand demanded a massage and pressed his face into her groin during the recording of an advertisement in 2009.
None of the alleged victims reported the assaults at the time of the crimes because they felt ashamed, guilty and feared they would be blamed, the prosecutor told the jury.
The jurors will hear from the women later in the trial, which is expected to last about 10 weeks.
Brand, who is on bail, denies all the charges.
He told journalists outside the South London court that he felt “blessed,” and “hopeful that this process will lead to good outcomes for everybody involved.”
Known for risque stand-up routines and his battles with drugs and alcohol, Brand rose to prominence in the early 2000s, hosting television programs and his own BBC radio show. He appeared in Hollywood films including Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him to the Greek.
In recent years, he has moved away from mainstream media, relocated to Florida and built a large online following with videos that focus on wellness, conspiracy theories and discussions of his newfound religious devotion.
In an April podcast interview with Megyn Kelly, he said that he had “exploitative” consensual sex with a 16-year-old girl when he was 30 years old.
During the podcast, Brand described his past self as “selfish” and an “exploiter of women.”
“I did sleep with a 16-year-old when I was 30. When I was 30, I was a very different person. I was a lot younger, and I was an immature 30-year-old,” he said.
“Me as a 30-year-old, I have no business having consensual sex with women that were just past girls, that were just over the age of consent.”
Brand — who says he has since become a devout Christian added that his access to drugs and women at the height of his fame provided him with an opportunity for “endless consent” that led him to be a “hedonist” and a “fool.”
“Consensual sex with a lot of people, when there is a strong power differential, as there is when you are a famous man who has the ability to attract women that I had at that time, I think, involves exploitation. I think it is exploitative,” he added, later estimating that he had sexual contact with “thousands” of women between the mid-1990s and 2015.
— with files from the Associated Press
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