Brand’s accuser felt treated ‘like a piece of meat’ after he called her ‘dirty’ following alleged rape, court told

Brand’s accuser felt treated ‘like a piece of meat’ after he called her ‘dirty’ following alleged rape, court told The comedian denies three charges of rape, three counts of sexual assault, and one allegation of indecent assault - Bookmark Become an Independent member to bookmark this article Already a member? Log in One of Russell Brand’s rape accusers said she felt completely degraded and “treated like a piece of meat” after he called her “dirty” in the wake of the alleged attack, a court heard. The woman told Southwark Crown Court she was anally raped by the celebrity during a sexual encounter at his Hampstead townhouse in early 2009, leaving her hurt, bleeding and fearing she had contracted a disease. When she spotted him by chance around six months later at a work event, she said she left her shift and ran back to her accommodation. Brand then sent her a message to which she replied “why are you even messaging me”, she said in a video-recorded police interview played to the jury. His response was “because you’re dirty and I want to push you further”, she added. When she eventually replied, she told him “I think you pushed me far enough - you treated me like an animal”, to which he responded “I’m sorry”, the court heard. She said receiving the message was “horrible” and made her feel like she had during the alleged attack at his home earlier that year. “I felt completely degraded and like I’d been f****** treated like an animal, like a piece of meat,” she said. The former Big Brother’s Big Mouth presenter and Hollywood actor denies three charges of rape, three counts of sexual assault, and one allegation of indecent assault in alleged attacks against six women as he rose to fame between 1999 and 2009. The star, wearing a grey waistcoat and trousers, watched her video interview on a screen in the dock and later sat bolt upright as she gave evidence from behind a screen on Wednesday. It comes after the jury heard the woman was “selected” by Brand in the foyer of the Hammersmith Apollo after watching one of his standup gigs in 2009, after the comedian allegedly pointed at her and said: “You”. She told police she willingly had a threesome with the star in his dressing room at the theatre, then later went to his Hampstead home knowing they would have sex. But she alleges a consensual encounter became rape when Brand took the condom off and started having anal sex with her. Initially, she said she could not speak or breathe and was in pain before pleading “can you stop, can you stop, can you stop”, she told police. Asked by Brand’s lawyer, Ian Winter KC, if she knew the comedian’s sexual reputation at the time, she replied: “I had not at that point heard about Mr Brand raping somebody.” Mr Winter said: “You knew that he had won the Sun newspaper’s ‘shagger of the year’ three years running?” “I don’t think I knew that,” she said, but agreed that she knew his “general reputation”. The woman, who was in her early 20s at the time, admitted that Brand was someone she had adored because she was a huge comedy fan, but, during a tense cross examination by Mr Winter, insisted she did not consent to anal sex. “I didn’t consent to what happened to me,” she said. “I have said that repeatedly in the questioning. I made it clear I thought I was going to have penetrative vaginal sex with a condom. I have made it clear throughout my statements.” Her voice broke as she told the court: “I agree I didn’t paint myself in a very good light. I did meet Mr Brand at the Hammersmith Apollo and I did have a partner who I loved and I made a huge mistake.” She told Mr Winter she had struggled with guilt and shame because she had gone to Brand’s home willingly and consented to vaginal sex. “I have said repeatedly that I carried that feeling of guilt and shame and I felt things, but particularly for exactly the reason that you are doing right here - making me feel like I brought this on myself,” she added. The woman told the court that “willingly going somewhere is not the same as consent in the eyes of the law”. Afterwards, she was left bleeding and Brand told her to “clean up the mess you have made”, she told the court. The comic “acted like nothing had happened” the woman said, adding: “He wasn’t acting like somebody who had just raped someone.” “There wasn’t unkindness, there wasn’t kindness, he wasn’t in there very long,” she added. “He put the TV on, took a phone call and left the room.” She disagreed with Mr Winter’s suggestion that she was upset mainly because of her fear that she had contracted a sexually transmitted disease. Under reexamination by prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones KC, she said she had a “big fear” that she had contracted HIV after the alleged attack. “After I got the all clear from that, I realised that it wasn’t just about worrying about contracting a sexually transmitted disease that was causing me pain, it was realising that something non-consensual had happened to me,” she said. The trial continues.