The Trial: Russell Brand - ‘I felt like a piece of meat’

This podcast is part of The Crime Desk, the true home of True Crime. Get all our episodes earlier than anyone else and listen ad-free by becoming a subscriber at TheCrimeDesk.com. Hi, I'm Caroline Cheaton and I'm Liz Hall. Welcome to day 8 of The Trial, Russell Brand. A quick trigger warning before we get into today, some of the evidence that we're going to hear is upsetting. He put his penis in me anally, he did not ask, he did not ask for permission. I felt like I could not speak, I could not breathe, the amount of pain. Eventually I said can you stop, can you stop? Can you stop? I said it repeatedly, I felt completely degraded by a piece of me. In the years that followed, I tortured myself because it was one of the most painful experiences I have ever gone through. Okay, as we said Liz, it is day 8. We are motoring through this case. We were originally scheduled to be beginning of December, maybe mid-December. It's hard to know, we're not there yet, but we've now heard from everyone of the alleged victims in the case, which means that we are ahead, the jury have been told, we are ahead of where we thought we would be. Defence case will start soon, we don't know what that's going to look like, what that's going to be. But for now, we are still in the alleged victims and their stories. This is the final woman that we've heard from. We heard from her late yesterday, so we didn't bring you her evidence yesterday, and then all of this morning. Now, this allegation relates to February 2009. This woman at the time was 21, and she had gone to see Russell Brand in one of his gigs at the Hammersmith Apollo. Her dad bought her the tickets. She says herself, she was a massive fan. She loved comedy, she loved Russell Brand, she thought he was interesting, articulate, and intelligent. And what, I suppose in a nutshell, what she says is, after that gig, in the days after that gig, and we'll come to the detail shortly, she had consensual sex with Russell Brand. But that turned into something that was not consensual and that was rape, and it was in 2025 when she came forward. And what we've been hearing late yesterday and a little bit of this morning is her video interview with the police when she did decide I was raped, I need to come and say something. So going back to the gig 2009 in the February, she just graduated from university and she went with her friend to see this concert. She knew about his reputation. She knew he had reputation for liking a lot of sex. He made no secret of that at the time. Now this is important because we mentioned it at the beginning of our coverage and it comes up again with the evidence from this woman. At the end of the gig there was a bit of a sort of announcement of one of a bed of phrase of, you know, if you're a fan, if you want to have sex with Russell Brand, just wait in around for you. And she did many, many other fans also did the same. He came out and pointed to her, she said, and said, you. Now that also mirrors the evidence we heard from Art Panero, his friend of a few days ago who said that was one of the things that he used to do. She and her friend went upstairs to the bar, he kissed her, she said in the bar and then she, her friend and another woman that she didn't know then went backstage with Russell Brand. So she said that she felt giddy after kissing him and so she was excited, her and her friend and this other girl that Russell Brand had picked out who we should say she was only 19. So all four of them went into his dressing room and she said, um, Russell Brand started to take his clothes off and she said at that point, her friend left because she started feeling comfortable, but she said after that, she did give Russell Brand oral sex and then the other woman, the 19 year old, had sex with him on a sofa. Now they all left the dressing room after that and she said, you know, I felt awful afterwards. She said I got a boyfriend, I told him I didn't want to have penetrative sex, but she said she regretted doing what she did and she was, I suppose she felt so guilty that she went home and immediately told a boyfriend what had gone on and they split up because of it. Then a few days later sometime after Russell Brand started texting her because I should say that they'd swapped numbers after they came out of the dressing room. So she told him that what had happened with her boyfriend that they'd broken up and she said that Russell Brand was very nice in all these messages afterwards and said he would hold her and make her feel safe. So that's the kind of precursor of why she ended up going to his house four or five days after the gig. So she said Russell Brand texted her, called her, persuaded her effectively to go to his house in Hampstead, he lived in a multimillion pound house in Hampstead. So he told her, go to this restaurant nearby, it was a cafe rouge, give a fake name and my driver will come and pick you up and she said that's exactly what happened. We should talk about the house a little bit because the jury was shown some pictures of this house yesterday and we've also released those pictures as well this morning three, four story townhills in Hampstead, plush, luxury house, marble, black bathrooms, black bedsheets. We heard the detail of black lural as well. Yeah, she described it as gothic, kind of masculine, very gothic and if you remember his kind of look at the time, he was very gothic, gothic looking wasn't he, you know, his black eyeliner. It was crazy hair, yeah, and in fact, if you're watching on YouTube, we're showing them you right now, if you're listening, there are no socials, yeah, so it was, it was plush, it was worth about three million quid then we think and in fact, the pictures that we've got that we've released are estate agent pictures, yeah, so they are a really good representation of the house at the time and she said, when she gave evidence today that she recognised the bedroom, yeah, she was showing a picture of it, yeah, she was. And interestingly, there was a picture of Jesus on a cross above the bed, yeah, so it was quite a distinctive bedroom when she said the bed was enormous, she is how she described it. So when she got there, she had had a couple of glasses of wine and, you know, I mean, it was put to her by the police officer who interviewed her was that sort of a bit of Dutch courage and she sort of agreed with that, she wasn't drunk, couple of glasses of wine and she got there and it was all fine when they were downstairs, they were chatting and then she said they went upstairs and the tone changed, he told her that she smelled funny, her hair smelled funny, he wanted her to wash her mouth out, now that was put today to be around the smell of alcohol by his barrister, she didn't have a recollection that it was about the wine, he just made her feel grubby, yeah, she said, she had a shower, he watched, he then had a toothbrush ready, she brushed her teeth, then they were having sex on the bed, he wore a condom at her request, she knew she said that that was why she was there, she knew this was a sexual interaction, she has no, you know, misguided notions about that, she said I knew he wasn't going to be my boyfriend, so she knew that, but then she said it changed and this is the heart of her case and this allegation that with no warning, no discussion, no conversation, she said he flipped her over onto all fours and he ain't really raped her, now she said initially she couldn't breathe because her head was in the pillows, but then she repeatedly told him to stop, we played you at the top of the episode, those quotes, now they are her words, we've used an actor to voice them, but they are her words and she said can you stop, can you stop, can you stop, she said the pain was extreme, he didn't, he ejaculated inside her, he had at that point no condom on, afterwards she said there were stains on the bed, he told her to get some wipes out of the bathroom and clean up the mess that you've made, she said they were his words, then she said he put the TV on, he made a call, then he left the room, she didn't know the timeframe, he wasn't being unkind in this moment, but he wasn't being kind either, she said, shortly afterwards a man came into the room, told her to get ready, she had to leave because Russell had a gig that night, so he had to get ready so she was basically shown the door, she got into the car again with the driver, she was upset, she was also at this point still bleeding, she said, he dropped off at the tube, didn't say anything, gave some tissues to wipe her eyes she got out at the tube and that was it. Yeah she said that you know she was in shock really and like you said Caroline she was bleeding she said it made her very unwell what had happened she said she went home and immediately told a couple of close friends that she was staying with she ended up telling some close work colleagues as well because she needed time off work she was anxious she wasn't sleeping she wasn't eating she was absolutely terrified that Russell branded given her HIV or some other sexually transmitted disease well she had all the tests. Yeah and she had all the tests she went home she told her mum her mum took it to the clinic and she said her life kind of was turned upside down I suppose. She was spiraled really. Yeah spiraled she started drinking and you know she was just trying to keep it together I suppose she said she saw him a few months later by chance Russell Brand at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival because she ended up getting a job up there over the summer in August but she said just seeing him was upsetting but she said he then sent her a text message she said she couldn't remember what the first text had said but she said she remembered texting in back saying why are you even messaging me and he replied along the lines of because you're dirty and I want to push you further and she said that was obviously really upsetting so she replied and told him that he pushed her far enough and treated her like an animal and he did actually apologise after that she said he quickly replied and said I'm sorry and she said that was the last she heard from him obviously she was struggling she went into rehab she talked about having some contacts with journalists before the dispatches program came out but being unable to take part because she just wasn't in the right place but then when Russell Brand was charged in April 2025 with offenses relating to four of the women in the case so the first four we've already heard from she did decide that she was getting better and she had to come forward for herself really how she talked about it yeah she said she couldn't continue with the burden if it being her burden and as part of this recovery and she's had a lot of counselling a lot of help along the way and she outlined that at length in her video interview with the police that she just felt this was needed she had to say something so she was a sort of not an add-on charge but she was added onto this list of charges a bit later because it was 2025 when she was interviewed and it was 2023 when the other women that we've heard from were interviewed I mean as ever in a full episode we'll bring you a lot of what she had to say in her own words but we'll just talk a bit about the challenge from Ian Winter yeah because we did have a few minutes of that today in court before we left to do the episode um of course this is Russell Bunn's defense barrister and his point to her was well you know you consented you went there you knew why you were going there you knew this was never going to be a relationship you consented when you went along and it was only when you told your dad yeah what happened and your dad said well you were great yes that you then decided oh yes it was so you didn't think this at the time um but it was interesting again we should say she's behind the screen yeah um and her voice was quite low at times she's not a loud speaker but she was confident strident adamant that you know the law is I did consent to some form of sexual activity I've owned that I've owned that I went yeah I've owned that decision but I did not consent to what he then did when he ain't really raped me she said she tortured herself for so long about this didn't feel that she had the right to call it rape yeah she said that three times yeah she said that you know she'd felt guilt at the fact that she'd made the decision to go along there she said that's the word she used I owned it I owned the fact that I went there I knew what was going to happen but like you said Caroline she was so forceful and so robust I suppose in in her denial I mean again it was feisty because Mr. Winter was putting the same question to her over and over again and she said repeatedly I did not consent to everything that happened when she visited herself yeah and she also said too in winter for exactly the reason you are making me feel right here that I brought this on myself that is why she said I carried that feeling of guilt and shame so we're going to bring you as we said all of her words tomorrow there was some really powerful and at times feisty exchanges and we'll bring you all of her words later in the week. Before we go please do subscribe you'll get everything from the Russell Bank case if you subscribe to thecrimedesk.com including of course our special round breakdown which lands every single Saturday just rounding up all the big moments from the week and if you want to get in touch our social handles around the screen if you're watching and if you're listening you should be able to find them in the show notes. Back tomorrow for day nine. See you then. Ever wondered what doom scrolling does to our brain or why haven't they opened up an actual Jurassic Park yet? I'm Emma Kennedy and this is why the podcast for curious minds from the team behind oh god what now and the bunker we're back with the brand new season diving into lives weirdest wildest questions every Wednesday joined by top minds from science tech and beyond. No topic too strange no question too silly if it makes you say wait what is that we're on it. Subscribe to why with me Emma Kennedy wherever you get your podcasts.