Comedian Russell Brand was a "sexual predator" who was "ruthless, calculated and manipulative" when targeting women for sex, a British prosecutor told a UK jury Wednesday at the start of his rape and sexual assault trial.
The one-time left-wing personality, who shot to fame as a television and radio presenter, faces seven sexual offence charges involving six women. He denies all the allegations.
Prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones said the alleged offences took place between 1999 and 2009, when Brand's career was beginning to flourish.
Addressing the jury, she gave graphic details of accusations by women, saying the youngest was 21 at the time of the alleged offences.
They came forward to police after seeing media coverage about Brand in 2023 and after he was initially charged in 2025, the court heard.
Brand, now 51, was "not deterred" when some of the women said no, she said, adding his desire for sex was "indiscriminate and voracious".
He used charm and comic talents when he wanted something but would then be "demanding and entitled... childlike in his expectation that his every desire should be met," Karmy-Jones told the jury of eight men and four women.
"He was ruthless, calculated and manipulative, and the prosecution say -- a sexual predator," she added.
Brand, dressed in a dark suit, black-and-white striped shirt and long white tie, arrived at London's Southwark Crown Court in a black van accompanied by his wife Laura.
None of the women will be identified in court. Brand gave police a prepared statement about each one, saying he did not remember the women and any sexual activity was consensual.
Brand's acquaintance, Mark Pinheiro, a visual effects artist, testified Wednesday that Brand said in 1999 he hoped "one day he would be able to have slept with over 5,000 girls".
Brand "boasted all you need to do is tell the women what they want to hear", Pinheiro said.
Brand has in recent years reinvented himself as a conservative and faith-based guru for millions of social media followers.
He has pleaded not guilty to all seven of the charges -- three counts of rape, three of sexual assault and one charge of indecent assault.
The first woman met Brand at a Labour Party conference in southern Bournemouth in 1999.
She invited him to her hotel room where he pushed her onto the bed before raping her without using a condom, the prosecutor said.
Pinheiro, who was performing with Brand in Bournemouth, testified the comedian had said he was "going out to get laid" and returned the next day, seeming "really flustered" and insisted on returning to London.
Brand later told him he "did get into an intimate scenario" and "said 'I think I may have gone a little bit too far'," Pinheiro said.
One woman said Brand in 2001 tried to drag her into a toilet cubicle at MTV's office, but she resisted.
Another woman met Brand at a London bar in 2004 and said he grabbed her breasts and pulled her into a toilet cubicle, orally raping her, after telling her not to be a "spoilsport".
One woman, who was then 21, said she had consensual oral and then vaginal sex with Brand in 2009 at his house, but he then forced her into anal sex without her consent, the prosecutor said.
In the final charge, a woman employed by Channel 4 television said she was working with Brand in a recording studio in 2009, when members of his production team told her she must give him a massage and he pressed his face into her groin.
The trial, set to last weeks, is attracting intense media scrutiny, with numerous British outlets launching dedicated podcasts and US channels reporting from outside the court.
Born to working-class parents in Essex in eastern England, Brand launched a successful stand-up comedy career as a teenager.
He became a household name as a television presenter on MTV, Channel 4 and the BBC.
He then made a foray into Hollywood, starring in several hit films, and was in a brief but high-profile marriage to US pop star Katy Perry.
Now remarried and living in Florida with his young family, he has gained a new following as an influencer, with six million subscribers on YouTube, 10.1 million on X and 4.9 million on Instagram.