Prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones KC told Southwark Crown Court Brand liked to exercise “control” over the women, and felt “disdain” towards them as he pursued his goal of sleeping with 5,000 women.
asserted
he → tell → women
She pointed jurors to his 2007 book, where he discussed his “birthright orgasm”, and a 2017 interview Brand gave when he referred to women as “amusements” in a “playground of orgasms”.
asserted
he → point → orgasms
Ms Karmy-Jones suggested Brand’s attitude to the women’s accusations was “why on earth are they complaining about things that were plainly so trivial?”.
uncertain
that → suggest → things
Read More
“He didn’t even need to know their names.
asserted
He → read → names
“As he said in a 2017 interview, they were the amusements in what he described as his playground of orgasms.
asserted
he → say → orgasms
“We suggest you will be satisfied so you are sure that the six complainants told you the truth, not an invented truth, not an reimagined truth, but the real truth of what happened to them.
asserted
what → suggest → them
“We invite you to find him guilty on all counts.”
asserted
him → invite → counts
Brand faces three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault, and one allegation of attempted indecent assault.
asserted
Brand → face → assault
One of his accusers was a 21-year-old fan when she met Brand after watching him perform stand-up comedy at the Hammersmith Apollo in 2009.
asserted
him → meet → 2009
She told the court she willingly had a threesome with Brand backstage on the night of the performance, then went to his Hampstead home a few days later to have sex.
asserted
she → tell → sex
But she told jurors Brand forced her to shower and brush her teeth before sex, then during their time in bed he forced her into anal sex.
asserted
he → tell → sex
Ms Karmy-Jones suggested on Friday that Brand had been “getting off on the control” when he forced the young woman to strip and shower while he watched.
uncertain
he → suggest → woman
“She had showered before, she had put her make-up on, she had just tried to make herself pretty and he just shoved her in the shower,” she said.
asserted
she → shower → shower
“He stood and stared at her while she stripped down and went in.
asserted
she → stand → her
“It was like he was administering her – was it the control of the situation that he was getting off on?”
asserted
he → administer → that
The alleged victim conceded in court that she had not “painted myself in a good light” as she gave evidence of cheating on her boyfriend during the encounter at the Apollo, then knowing she was going to have sex when she later headed to Brand’s house.
asserted
she → concede → house
But Ms Karmy-Jones told the jury they could assess the woman as “completely honest”, who had been “fair” to Brand when she insisted that their sex at first – though it “wasn’t nice and wasn’t done to pleasure her” – had been consensual.
uncertain
it → tell → her
The prosecutor said: “She said it felt like he could have been f****** a hole.
“
uncertain
he → say → ?
In effect, she said it could have been anyone or anything.
uncertain
it → say → effect
“But she doesn’t suggest it wasn’t consensual.”
asserted
it → suggest → ?
But the woman went on to tell the court that Brand had “flipped her over” and started to have painful anal sex without consent and without a condom.
asserted
Brand → go → condom
He only cared about his “birthright orgasm” and ignored her pleas for him to stop, the prosecutor said, adding that she was “just another number to add to his 5,000 notches which he was marking up”.
asserted
he → care → which
Ms Karmy-Jones said: “She did say no, she did say stop, but he did not.”
asserted
he → say → ?
During his evidence on Wednesday, Brand said consent during sex is “fundamental” and suggested to him it is “more important that the sex itself”.
uncertain
it → say → sex
But Ms Karmy-Jones said in her closing speech: “Members of the jury, taking into account what you have heard in this trial, does that ring true as something Mr Brand believed during this period of time?”
asserted
Brand → say → time
She went on to quote Brand’s own words from his 2007 book, My Booky Wook, when he wrote: “If I want something – whether it’s a job or a woman – I will determinedly, resolutely, remove anything that’s in the way, until I possess the object of my desire.”
asserted
I → go → desire
Ms Karmy-Jones said: “A lack of consent, no problem for Mr Brand, just an obstacle he would have to remove, or perhaps ignore.”
asserted
he → say → Brand
Turning to one of the other allegations, that Brand had thrust his head into a female Channel 4 worker’s lap in 2009 when she had been forced to give him a massage, Ms Karmy-Jones asked the jury to remember Brand himself saying he was “staggeringly famous” at that time.
asserted
he → turn → time
She said: “The defendant was rampant in his desire to have sexual contact whenever he wanted, whenever he pleased.”
asserted
he → say → contact
She asked the jury to consider how they would feel being forced to massage a powerful man in their workplace, and added: “Women, particularly subservient women, were simply a disposable commodity to him.”
asserted
Women → ask → him
On Friday morning, Ms Karmy-Jones accused Brand of gaslighting the women after attacking them by giving them his email address or phone number and pretending nothing had happened.
asserted
nothing → accuse → address
She said the six women, who do not know each other, have been “haunted for years” by their experiences, with one slipping into alcoholism and several saying they blamed themselves and were afraid to speak out.
asserted
they → say → themselves
Describing Brand’s alleged demeanour, she said: “His eyes changed, he snapped, from charming to frightening to nasty.”
asserted
he → describe → nasty
She said they are “six women who have nothing to gain, who have not sought the limelight, who have not looked out for some form of publicity, who have not taken part in a documentary, not made claims for compensation”.
uncertain
who → say → compensation
She added: “There is no benefit to them, apart from perhaps some closure by coming before you and telling you their accounts of what happened to them so long ago.”
asserted
what → add → them
Brand is accused of trying to indecently assault an MTV worker by pulling her into a toilet in 2001, forcing himself on another MTV worker in a Soho bar toilet during a party in 2004, kissing and groping a radio worker in 2005 in a corridor, and raping a woman in a hotel room at the 1999 Labour Party conference.
asserted
Brand → accuse → conference
Brand denies all the charges.
asserted
Brand → deny → charges
His barrister, Ian Winter KC, is due to deliver his closing speech on Monday.
asserted
barrister → deliver → Monday
The trial continues.
asserted
trial → continue → ?
The Aporia
