Brand’s former assistant describes ‘insane’ appetite in statement

Oct. 26 (UPI) — The former personal assistant of comedian Russell Brand told a court Monday about her experience working for him, saying he had an “insane sexual appetite” and that he would ask her to get phone numbers for him from female fans.

Helen Berger worked for Brand from June 2006 to February 2007. Brand, 51, is accused of three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one charge of indecent assault. Six women made the accusations, which span 10 years starting in 1999.

Brand denies the allegations.

Berger’s written statement, read Monday in Southwark Crown Court, said that she never saw Brand do anything against the law but that she did see him “treat women poorly.”

“Though I’d worked with celebrities before and seen a lot of people normalizing bad behavior, this was on another level,” she said. “I think everyone else normalizing and dismissing Russell’s behavior made me think, I guess, this is just the way it is.”

Berger made her statement to police in May 2024. She said she left her job with Brand because she was burnt out and “sick of him.”

Berger describes an environment in which Brand had sex with numerous women during her time as his assistant, saying that he found random women online to sleep with and that she once had to stop his mother and girlfriend from walking in on him while he was having sex with someone in his dressing room.

She said his requests for female fans’ phone numbers made her “uncomfortable” and that she stopped doing so.

Prosecution statements Monday also included one from the manager of a woman who said Brand sexually assaulted her when she worked for Channel 4 in 2009.

The manager said the woman told her that Jack Bayles and Gareth Roy, Brand’s associates, told her she had to give Brand a massage or he would not continue with the day’s recording. The manager also reported that the woman said Bayles and Roy were present and “watched and laughed” while Brand “sexually assaulted her right in front of them.”

Brand’s defense has said any sexual activity was consensual. The prosecution is set to wrap up Tuesday.