Russell Brand's former flatmate 'witnessed more crimes' and appeals to victims to call cops

Detailed summary

Mark Pinheiro, who previously lived with Russell Brand in London, has appealed to other women following the disgraced former comedian's convictions last week

Russell Brand’s former flatmate says he saw the sexual predator commit more crimes and is appealing to other potential ­victims to come forward.

Mark Pinheiro, a one-time pal who was the first to give evidence at the trial of the disgraced entertainer, says he is willing to back women up.

He claims he once saw Brand, now serving 10 and a half years for rape and sex assaults, try to drag a woman into his bedroom against her will.

Mark, who lived with Brand in London for 16 months from 1999, urged victims: “If you’re out there and you’re listening and you want to come forward, do come forward and I will support you. I’ll say it now as I said it back then, ‘I saw what happened’. It’s not a he-said she-said argument... there was a third party to bear witness.”

Mark speaks about the alleged attack he witnessed in new Netflix documentary, Russell Brand: Open Secret. He says he heard a girl shouting “Let go of me”, and “wrestling herself away from him [Brand]”.

He claims: “I open up my door, and I see Russell basically holding on to the girl with both of his hands, gripping hold of her arm trying to pull her back in like a tug of war. And she’s wrestling herself away from him, and then as I switch the light on, the light comes on and he lets go.”

Mark first met Brand in December 1998 and they performed together in a cabaret group. Brand moved in with him at the end of 1999 until early 2001. They remained pals and Mark even celebrated several Christmases together with Brand and his doting mum Barbara, who raised the comic after his dad, Ron, walked out when he was just six months old.

But they drifted apart around 2010 when Brand met pop star Katy Perry and Mark last saw him during his Messiah Complex tour in 2015.

He says: "I didn’t speak to him, but was backstage and I got to witness a lot of his antics... seeing a lot of girls who are taking the invite to come back to stage to meet him and were queueing up and patiently waiting their turn.

Opening of the article, excerpted from Daily Mirror. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.