Russell Brand rape trial opens in London

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Russell Brand at Southwark crown court in London for the opening day of his trial. Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA theguardian.com

Court artist sketch of Russell Brand appearing during jury selection at Southwark Crown Court, London (Elizabeth Cook/PA) (PA) independent.co.uk

The case against Russell Brand is being outlined in court (PA) independent.co.uk

Russell Brand pictured outside court on Wednesday (Getty) Getty

Russell Brand ‘shares feelings’ ahead of rape and sexual assault trial in London standard.co.uk

Russell Brand arrives with wife Laura Gallacher at Southwark Crown Court for the start of his trial on Wednesday, October 14 standard.co.uk

Court artist sketch of Russell Brand appearing during jury selection at Southwark Crown Court, London (Elizabeth Cook/PA) standard.co.uk

Russell Brand arriving at Southwark Crown Court, London (Ben Whitley/PA) standard.co.uk

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The rape trial of Russell Brand opened at Southwark Crown Court in London on Wednesday, seventeen years after the most recent offence he is accused of. The comedian, 51, denies three counts of rape, three of sexual assault and one of indecent assault, brought by six women over alleged conduct spanning 1999 to 2009 — the decade in which he rose from stand-up in pubs and clubs to presenting jobs, Hollywood films and his own show on BBC Radio 2.

Prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones KC told the jury of eight men and four women that Brand was a "ruthless, calculating and manipulative" predator whose desire for sex was "indiscriminate and voracious," and who was "child-like in his expectation that his every desire should be met." Some of the women protested and said no, she said; others had no opportunity to react; "it mattered not to the defendant."

The six complainants, the prosecution said, "did not know each other then and do not know each other now," and came forward independently. The first, a woman in her 20s who had watched Brand perform a cabaret show on the fringes of the 1999 Labour Party conference in Bournemouth, assumed he was gay — he gave no indication of being attracted to her — and invited him to her hotel room to continue the conversation. He emerged from the bathroom topless, she said, "prancing around the room – a bit like an ostrich, doing silly walks like Basil Fawlty." When she asked why he had taken his clothes off, he said it was simply how he was: "I'm mostly naked at home." The prosecution alleges he then raped her.

In between, the court heard, came an MTV worker whom Brand allegedly tried to force into a toilet in 2001, and a woman he allegedly pulled into the lavatory of a Soho bar in 2004 and orally raped. A friend of the defendant told investigators that "women and sex were a goal and an obsession," and that Brand had spoken of wanting to bed 5,000 women in his lifetime.

The final complainant, a Channel 4 worker on a filming project in 2009, said Brand was "friendly and nice" while children were present, then "angry, fed up, and petulant" once they left. She was told he was unhappy and that the situation would not improve unless she gave him a massage. She thought they were joking, then realised they meant it; after she refused and was told she had to, the court heard, Brand walked to her chair and placed his head directly into her groin. She blamed herself, the prosecution said, hated herself for what had happened, and did not want to become known and defined by what Brand had done to her.

Questioned by police, Brand gave prepared statements insisting that all sexual contact with women had been consensual. Mr Justice Bennathan instructed the jurors to ignore past reporting on the celebrity. Brand, who now lives in Florida, arrived at court with his wife, Laura Gallacher.

The charges span 1999 to 2009. The trial is scheduled to last six to eight weeks.