LAHORE  – 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, 51, who shot to fame as a television and radio presenter, faces seven sexual of­fence charges involv­ing six women. He denies all the alleged offences. 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 was “not deterred” when some of the women said no, she said, adding his desire for sexual contact 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. The identities of the wom­en will not be revealed during the trial. Brand, dressed in a dark suit, black-and-white striped shirt and long white tie, arrived for the start of the case at London’s Southwark Crown Court in a black Mercedes-Benz van accompanied by his wife Laura. In each woman’s case, Brand responded to police with a prepared state­ment saying he did not remember the women and any sexu­al activity was consen­sual. Karmy-Jones said Brand’s acquaintances recalled him bragging that he wanted to “bed 5,000 women in his lifetime”, adding, “you have to tell them what they need to hear”. It was a clear indi­cation of “how manipulative the de­fendant could be”, she 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 when he was per­forming at a Labour Party conference in Bournemouth in southern England 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.