Russell Brand accuser said alleged rape 'really hurt', court hears

• Warning - this report contains graphic content

The friend of a woman claiming to have been raped by Russell Brand told a jury the complainant had told her after the alleged attack that it had "really, really hurt".

The witness who spoke via video link at his trial said she had attended the Hammersmith Apollo theatre in London with the alleged victim in 2009, where they had been invited to the defendant's dressing room after his comedy show.

Statements from the woman's parents were also heard in court, saying their daughter had told them about the alleged attack, and that she had been "very worried about HIV".

Brand, 51, has pleaded not guilty to all seven charges in the trial - three counts of rape, three charges of sexual assault and one of indecent assault.

The allegations span a 10-year period from 1999 to 2009 and involve six female complainants.

The witness said the woman had told her she had visited Brand's house in London soon after meeting at the theatre, and that he then sent a car to collect the woman, which took her to his place in Hampstead.

She said when they spoke about it "quite soon after", she said she "was just crying - really upset".

The witness said Brand had forced her into having anal sex at the end of an encounter that started off consensually.

"He was quite aggressive," she said her friend had told her.

"He forcibly put it in my bum and "it really really hurt".

The witness says she remembers specifically asking the complainant if she had said no to Brand when the alleged attack started.

She said the woman replied "lots of times".

"She told me that she was in a lot of pain" and that "she couldn't sit down".

Another friend of the same complainant also gave evidence to the court.

From the witness box, she told the jury her friend had told her that she had told him to stop during the alleged rape.

She said her friend had said the worst moment had been after the act, and "she said that Brand told her she'd been dirty and had to clean up her mess".

"She said he was quite cold and keen to get her gone".

The witness said she had given her friend advice after she had confided in her.

"I told her that she should go and get checked out because she had anal tears and a lot of discomfort and to seek guidance from her parents and to go to the police.

"She just wasn't sure - it was all a bit chaotic in her head. She felt like it wasn't worth it."

She told jurors: "She didn't think she would be believed, and she didn't think it would be worth it to go.

"She kind of put it behind her."

Statements from the alleged rape victim's parents said their daughter stayed with them for about two months after the alleged incident with Brand.

Her mother's statement said: "I just remember her saying 'he raped me'.

"She was very worried about HIV," she said, adding that her daughter had started talking about it during a car journey.

"She said she went to his place, went to see him, as she had always admired him."

Her father recalled their daughter being "very upset and very unwell", during the stay, that that she was "upset by something that had happened to her."

The father said in his statement that his daughter told him: "They were having sex, she asked him to stop, she kept saying she had been assaulted.

"I turned to her in the car and asked if she asked him to stop, and she said 'no' several times.

"I said 'you have been raped, that's rape'."

He said his daughter got a sexual health check, and he said he had only recently learned his daughter is accusing Brand of anal rape.

The woman's former boyfriend also gave evidence, telling the court she was "very upset" whenever she talked about her encounter with Brand, and that "she characterised it as an assault... she called it rape".

Brand's barrister Ian Winter KC cross-examined the woman's former boyfriend and read parts of the statement he gave in June 2025, in which he said the woman had "come round" to having anal sex.

When asked if he had said that, the witness replied: "Yes."

The witness added the woman had "surrendered to the idea".

"If I was being attacked, you either fight back or surrendered, it doesn't negate the attack," he added.

Judge Mr Justice Bennathan sent the jury away until Monday morning, at the end of Thursday's evidence.

He told the jurors that "we aim to finish the prosecution case on Monday", adding the defence case would not begin before Tuesday morning.