Prosecution labels Russell Brand 'ruthless sexual predator' at opening of trial

LONDON -- LONDON (AP) — Russell Brand behaved as a “ruthless” sexual predator when he assaulted six women over the course of a decade, a prosecutor said Wednesday as she opened the rape and sexual assault case against the actor-comedian.Brand, 51, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault. The charges involve six women and alleged offenses between 1999 and 2009.Prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones told jurors at Southwark Crown Court in London that the six women, who do not know each other, were assaulted in “a hotel room, workplaces, a toilet cubicle in a bar and at his home address.”She said that at the time Brand had an “indiscriminate and voracious” desire for sexual contact, and “women were simply a means to an end.”The prosecutor said Brand could be funny and charming, “a flirt with a huge sexual appetite — childlike in his expectation that his every desire should be met.”“He was ruthless, he was calculating, he was manipulative. And, the prosecution say, he was a sexual predator,” Karmy-Jones said.Brand listened intently from the dock as the prosecutor described each of the alleged incidents, including the earlies...