I was screaming stop. Please don’t do this, I’m your friend

AFTER meeting Brand at a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous in 2013, ‘Phoebe’ had a brief, consensual sexual relationship with the star and they started working on a project together.

She claims she was alone in Brand’s Hollywood home when she became ‘trapped’ in a bedroom with the comic who started chasing her around the room. Phoebe said a naked Brand ‘grabbed me and got me on the bed’ and tried to forcibly remove her clothes and kiss her.

She, too, describes Brand’s demeanour changing during the alleged sex attack. Phoebe said: ‘I saw something come over his eyes, I swear to God, like, black. His eyes had no more colour, they were black, like the devil. Like a different person literally entered his body.

‘I was screaming, and I was like, “What are you doing, stop, please, you’re my friend, I love you, please don’t do this, I don’t want to do this.” I think he had his hands down my trousers but I was fighting so hard and I was screaming so hard, hoping that I could get through somehow.’

When the alleged assault ended she claims Brand became ‘super angry’ and shouted ‘f*** you’ and told her she was fired. Phoebe fled his house barefoot, passing a group of people who were arriving at Brand’s home for a business meeting.

She claimed that years later she bumped into a man who had been in that group who apologised for not helping her. She said: ‘He pulled me aside and he said to me, “I have never forgiven myself for not running in that house to save you. I heard you screaming. And I didn’t know what to do. And we were all so scared of him and I didn’t do anything. And I am sorry.”’

Phoebe continued working with Brand but claims when he learned she had told friends about the attack he ‘cornered’ her and threatened her with legal action.

She said she did not report the incident to police because she feared her career would be ruined by it.

Five of her friends told Dispatches they were aware of her claims, with three saying she told them about the alleged assault soon after it happened in early 2013. Brand left the US a short time later and returned to the UK.