Photo of shirtless Russell Brand before alleged assault shown to jury

A woman who alleges she was raped by Russell Brand has told his current sexual assault trial that he suddenly became “monster-like” after they had spent hours talking in a hotel room.

The alleged victim told the court that on a night in September 1999, after Brand snapped, he forced himself on her and raped her.

“I couldn’t struggle. I couldn’t breathe,” she told the court. “I know I said ‘No’.”

Brand, 51, is currently on trial in London on three counts of rape, three of sexual assault and one of indecent assault. 

The woman who testified is the first of six complainants to give evidence.

She further told the court that she had initially been under the impression that Brand was “gay” because of his “effeminate” manner.

She asserted she had not been drinking that night and honestly thought they would just talk in the hotel room.

The woman testified she suggested Brand make a coffee while she went to the bathroom. When she returned, he was “prancing” around the room “like an ostrich” without his shirt, and demanded she take photographs of him.

Jurors were shown two photographs of a shirtless Brand, who was then 24.

The woman told the court that Brand said he needed to see his mother, leaving immediately after the alleged rape.

She then testified that she spent hours washing herself in the hotel bathroom. “I remember banging my head against the wall,” she said.