Bibles, rosary beads and Russell Brand’s unbroken resolve: I spent the week in court with him – this is what I saw

Perched in the dock of Southwark Crown Court, Russell Brand sat bolt upright, hardly moving a muscle, as a woman told the jury: “He raped me.”

From the press benches, positioned directly behind the dock, the 51-year-old appeared to barely flinch as his first accuser recounted her alleged rape in agonising detail, at times describing him as “monster-like”, with a body like a snake and using his tongue “like a lizard”.

Sat on the edge of his seat with his hands placed on his lap, he kept his eyes straight ahead as she broke down in tears during a heated and emotionally charged cross-examination by his lawyer, Ian Winter KC.

She told the court she thought Brand was gay when she invited him back to her hotel room following a fringe event at a Labour Party Conference in 1999, insisting: “I didn’t want sex. I didn’t want his dirty penis inside me. I value my body, I have always valued my body.”

He remained equally expressionless as his second accuser told the jury he turned into a “wild-eyed maniac” as he allegedly tried to drag her into the toilet of the MTV offices in 2001.

It would be understandable for a defendant facing such serious allegations – which he resolutely denies – to betray some discomfort, shuffling in their seat, crossing or uncrossing their legs or even stretching their aching back after hours of court hearings.

But the celebrity’s composure and extraordinarily upright posture, which was captured by court sketch artists and is perhaps the result of years of yoga practice or meditation, rarely faltered over the first three days of prosecution evidence against him.

As he stood for the judge to leave the room during court breaks, he would clasp his hands behind his back, sometimes revealing a set of white prayer beads clutched in his right palm.

The comedian and Hollywood actor-turned Rumble content creator denies three charges of rape, three counts of sexual assault, and one allegation of indecent assault in alleged attacks against six women as he rose to fame between 1999 and 2009.

The door to the dock in courtroom three has been kept open, allowing Brand to make occasional glances to the public gallery where members of his entourage and sometimes his wife, Laura Gallacher, have been watching proceedings.

For the most part, the star has barely looked in the direction of more than 20 journalists rammed into the packed press benches directly behind him, while multiple court sketch artists have immortalised the scene in striking tableaus. Around 30 more reporters have been watching on a screen in another courtroom, with yet more granted remote online access to report from the major celebrity trial, such was the demand to cover it.

The media frenzy surrounding the case has been all-consuming, with at least four daily podcasts agonising over every cough and spit of the trial for audiences in Britain and the US, where Brand now lives with his wife and three children in Florida.

Such is the demand for seats that one man could be heard shouting loudly at court staff after he was denied entry on Thursday.

It is true that the Forgetting Sarah Marshall star is no stranger to the glare of the public eye, and he is met with a throng of waiting cameras and photographers when he arrives at court each morning. Sometimes, he is carrying a Bible or a prayer book, usually making a brief comment to the waiting media pack.

On Friday, wearing a sharp grey suit, long neck tie and white shirt with heeled suede ankle boots adding another few inches to his 6ft 2in frame, he said it's “an extraordinary and stressful situation” but added it was “also an exploration of truth and justice and as I’ve said before I pray for everybody involved”.

“It’s in a way very, very sad but hopefully it can bring about some conclusions that are beneficial,” he added.

On the previous two days, he said he felt “blessed” as he was ushered inside from a blacked out minivan by his close protection officer, Joe McCann, reported to be a former sparring partner of boxer Tyson Fury.

The jury of eight men and four women appeared to listen intently, with some taking notes, to prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones KC as she described Brand as a predator who targeted women to satisfy his “voracious” sexual appetite as she opened her case on Wednesday.

“He could be nice when he wanted to be – funny, undoubtedly; charming, likeable even – when he wanted something in return,” she told the jury. “But then demanding, entitled, a flirt with a huge sexual appetite – childlike in his expectation that his every desire should be met.

“He was ruthless, he was calculated, and he was manipulative, and the prosecution say – a sexual predator.”

He is accused of raping the first victim in her hotel room at the political conference in 1999 and indecently assaulting the MTV worker in the toilet incident in 2001, the trial heard.

He is further alleged to have grabbed a woman’s breasts in a Soho bar in 2004 before orally raping her in the toilet, kissing and groping a radio station worker in 2004 or 2005 and anally raping a woman during a sexual encounter in 2009. The final alleged victim claims Brand requested a massage from her before placing his head in her groin area.

But the trial atmosphere became more heated as Mr Winter, representing Brand, cross-examined the first alleged victim for almost two hours on Thursday. At one point he was told to “shush” by the judge, Mr Justice Bennathan, in a tense exchange in front of the jury.

When the judge interjected during one line of questioning, Mr Winter rebutted: “Forgive me… I am conducting a cross-examination.”

When the two legal figures then spoke at the same time, the judge said to the barrister: “Shush. I’m the judge.”