Russell Brand Trial: Former PA Recalls “Insane Sexual Appetite” and Says “He Never Seemed Happy After”

Russell Brand‘s rape and sexual assault trial is in its third week, and on Monday the court heard from his former personal assistant. In ongoing proceedings at London’s Southwark Crown Court, the disgraced presenter and comedian — also star of St Trinian’s and Forgetting Sarah Marshall — is accused of three counts of rape, three charges of sexual assault and one allegation of indecent assault, with six women alleging seven offenses dating from 1999 to 2009. He denies all of the charges. The Hollywood Reporter took an in-depth look at the claims as they were presented by prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones in the trial’s first week. One woman alleges she was raped in a Bournemouth hotel room by Brand in 1999, and another says he pulled her into a toilet and orally raped her at a bar in Soho in 2004. A different complainant told the jury last week that after consensual vaginal sex with Brand, he anally raped her at his Hampstead home in 2009. The assault claims range from the now-50-year-old putting his face in a co-worker’s crotch to exposing himself while travelling with a complainant in a car. The women’s testimonies have been cross-examined by Brand’s defense lawyer, Ian Winter. On Monday, a statement from Brand’s ex-PA was read to the court. She worked for him between June 2006 and February 2007, and continued to work for Brand’s former talent agency until December 2007, according to court coverage by Sky News. In her statement, Helen Berger said that “working for Russell was one of the hardest jobs I ever did.” She continued: “He loved walking around in his flat with no shirt on,” and added that, on one occasion, she recalls Brand interviewing the actress Sadie Frost with “an open robe” and no top on. Berger described the job as “really hard work” and said Brand was “non-stop.” She “always had to manage her emotions around him” and said he possessed an “insane sexual appetite.” “[He was] sleeping with people day and night,” she continued. “He was very open about what his needs were. We didn’t have a specific conversation about it.” Berger also said that Brand would become “antsy” on a deadline, and jokingly ask her: “‘Can I go and have sex now?'” But she also told the jury that “he never seemed happy after sex,” and would often appear “depressed” after various encounters. “Women would come over and it was obvious it was for sex,” the court heard from Berger, who added that she would then just let herself out. Brand would “often meet women online” using websites like Myspace, she said, and after his comedy gigs, where he “was like a peacock… And women always approached him.” Berger also said Brand asked her to approach women for their phone numbers for him. She did, but said she wouldn’t again and that he never asked her after that. Another time, Berger told the court that she was bringing Brand’s mother and then-girlfriend to meet them but was told not to take them to the green room as he was having sex with another woman at the time. At another event, Berger said she went ot the toilet and Brand was receiving oral sex in the next cubicle. She quit working for Brand when she was “sick of him and burned out,” and saw women being mistreated by him. Berger added: “I never witnessed Russell Brand doing anything against the law, and I never had anyone disclose to me about [anything against the law]… Though I have worked with lots of celebrities before and seen lots of people normalising bad behaviour, this was on another level. “I think everyone else normalising and dismissing Brand’s behaviour made me think, ‘I guess this is just the way it is,'” Berger added. Again, he denies all of the charges. The trial could last up to six weeks.