A former personal assistant of Russell Brand has told a court she was instructed to get phone numbers for the entertainer from female fans when she first started working with him.

Helen Berger, who worked closely with Brand from June 2006 to February 2007, said the request "felt uncomfortable" and, after seeking advice, she told the TV personality that she would not do that anymore.

Brand, 51, is accused of three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault, and one charge of indecent assault.

The allegations, made by six female complainants, span a 10-year period between 1999 and 2009. He denies the charges.

Brand had an "insane sexual appetite", Berger told Southwark Crown Court in a written statement on Monday.

Berger left her job with Brand after she became "sick of him", she said. She added that he had sex with numerous women during the time she was his assistant.

She described a work environment where Brand would ask her if he could "go and have sex now" when frustrated with a particular task.

Berger added that she never "witnessed anything against the law" but that "everyone normalised and dismissed his behaviour" so it "made me think it was accepted."

She told the court that "peacock" Brand found random women online to satisfy his "insane sexual appetite and was sleeping with people day and night", but sex often made him depressed.

She told the court Brand used MySpace to find women for sex, and said: "At his house, women often came over and it was clear they were there for sex."

She recalled once finding a female celebrity asleep in Brand's bed while he was wandering around the house half-dressed, and said of the comedian: "He was like a peacock, women would always approach him."

Russell Brand's defence team says any sexual activity was consensual and accounts have been twisted in the light of a defamatory TV documentary in 2023 which made allegations of sexual abuse against the entertainer.

The prosecution is due to finish on Tuesday morning.

You can follow the trial day by day on the BBC podcast Russell Brand on Trial - available on BBC Sounds, YouTube, iPlayer, or wherever you get your BBC podcasts

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