The Russell Brand Trial is Now Underway

After more than a decade of it being the biggest open secret in the British comedy scene, Russell Brand is now on trial, facing three counts of rape, three charges of sexual assault and one of indecent assault.

The allegations, made by six women, span a 10-year period between 1999 and 2009 (via the BBC.) Riel Karmy-Jones KC, the lawyer for the prosecution, told Southwark Crown Court in London that “the circumstances of the offending were as wide and as varied as the defendant’s career.” “His desire, strong desire, for some form of sexual contact was indiscriminate and voracious,” she told the court. She described Brand as “ruthless” and a “sexual predator”, one who could also be “demanding, entitled, a flirt with a huge sexual appetite - childlike in his expectation that his every desire should be met.”

On Wednesday, the jury heard details of the alleged offences. The first complainant says she met Brand before he was famous in 1999 after attending the Labour Party conference. There, she spoke to Brand at a fringe event and then he later allegedly raped her. The prosecution said when Brand was questioned by police about this allegation of rape, “he said if it happened, he didn’t remember the incident.”

The second accuser worked at MTV when Brand asked for her help in finding the bathroom before allegedly assaulting her. The third woman says Brand orally raped her in a toilet after meeting her at a party in 2004. The reported incident happened within minutes of their meeting.

The fourth complainant says Brand pushed her up against a wall in the offices of Capital Radio in 2004 or 2005 and kissed her “sloppily and aggressively”, and “grabbed her body, at her breasts, sides and buttocks, aggressively.”

The fifth woman says she met Brand when he was performing comedy at the Hammersmith Apollo in 2009, and that what began as a consensual encounter turned to an incident of anal rape. The sixth accuser says that Brand “fell to his knees and placed his head directly into her groin area” after demanding she give him a massage. She was on work assignment at the time.

Brand denies all charges. He is currently touring conservative political circles as a “born again” free thinker and anti-vaxxer who does events with Dr. Oz.