Under cross-examination Brand’s barrister, Ian Winter KC put it to the complainant that when she first met Brand she welcomed his attention.
“I welcomed his company, not what followed,” the woman replied.
He then suggested that she fell under his spell and that she wanted to spend more time with him.
The woman replied: “That’s incorrect. I did not fall under his spell and I did not find him attractive. “
Asked by the defence why she agreed to go back to the hotel room with Brand, she responded: “I’m telling you… I thought he was a gay man, very softly spoken, very effeminate.
“I felt safe – I felt sexually safe with him. He was very intelligent and that appealed to me, not in a sexual sense. “
The woman became tearful a number of times while giving her evidence from the witness box.
At one point the judge told the witness to “take a moment, catch your breath”, after she became emotional.
Brand’s barrister later challenged the complainant about why she did not run back into the bathroom or leave the room when she realised Brand had removed some of his clothes.
She replied: “What was I supposed to do? Hide in bathroom? Walk out the room? Walk past him? I had no phone, no reception, no idea where I was. Run into the night with him following me?”
Referring to photographs she had taken of Brand, she said: “I took those photographs, he told me to take them, he was showing off, he was prancing around… I was scared… I couldn’t fight him.
“I blame myself for allowing him back into my room,” the woman said.
She was also challenged by the defence barrister about why she didn’t report her allegation about Brand to the police in Bournemouth.
She said: “I didn’t report it as I didn’t want anyone to know. I didn’t think anyone would believe me.”
The woman told the jury that after she says she was raped by Brand she blamed herself “in that moment”.
“I hate that I blamed myself, I shouldn’t have to blame myself.”
She also told jurors: “I regret to this day the error in judgment thinking this man would not rape me.