Misschien moeten vrouwen beter worden in het uitzoeken van een partner als dat huiselijk geweld zo vaak voorkomt?

ENGLAND Russell Brand Rape Trial - Day 6 A woman said Russell Brand degraded her and treated her like “a piece of meat” when he raped her at his London townhouse, a court has heard. She alleged she repeatedly begged the 51-year-old comedian to stop the assault which left her bleeding for days and in pain. Months later she bumped into Brand who texted her saying: “You’re dirty and I wanna push you further.” Brand, 51, faces three charges of rape, three of sexual assault and one of indecent assault against six women, in allegations spanning 10 years from 1999 to 2009. He denies all the charges and has pleaded not guilty. The TV personality listened intently in the dock as the woman gave evidence from behind a screen at Southwark crown court on Wednesday. Brand is accused of anally raping the woman at his three-storey Victorian townhouse after picking her out from a crowd at one of his stand-up performances at the Hammersmith Apollo in early 2009. The woman told police she was a “massive fan” of Brand and had performed oral sex on him after the gig despite having a boyfriend at the time. Days later, she went to Brand’s home in Hampstead, north-west London, knowing she would have vaginal sex with him. But she alleged Brand anally raped her after consensual vaginal sex. In tense exchanges with Brand’s barrister Ian Winter KC during cross-examination, the woman denied she had consented to anal sex but later regretted it because she was in pain and feared she had contracted HIV. The woman told the court that Brand “didn’t act like he’d done something criminal” after the alleged attack, to which Winter replied: “That’s because you consented.” She insisted she had not, telling the barrister: “We’re not here to discuss my morality.” “I didn’t consent to what happened to me,” she continued. “I have said that repeatedly in questioning. I made it very clear that I thought I was going to have penetrative vaginal sex with a condom. “I agree that I haven’t painted myself in a very good light. I did just meet Mr Brand at the Hammersmith Apollo and I did have a partner who I really loved and I made a huge mistake.” The woman was also questioned about her pre-recorded police interviews which were played to court on Tuesday and Wednesday. She told officers she ran into Brand at the Edinburgh Festival months after the alleged rape, and then received a “random” text from the comedian. The woman, who was in her early 20s, said she challenged Brand: “Why are you even messaging me?” She claimed he responded: “Because you are dirty and I want to push you further.” She said she replied saying: “I think you’ve pushed me far enough, you treated me like an animal,” to which Brand responded: “I’m sorry.” She told police: “I feel how I’d felt at his house, that I felt completely degraded and fucking treated like an animal, like a piece of meat.” Winter questioned why she had not replied to Brand saying he had raped her. He told the woman: “That’s because he had pushed you and probably had treated you like an animal, but he didn’t rape you.” “I didn’t consent,” the woman replied. Earlier, Winter said the woman was aware of Brand’s reputation, to which she replied: “I had not heard about Mr Brand raping somebody.” Winter replied: “Of course not. You knew that he was extremely sexually active with multiple women. You knew that he won the Sun newspaper’s 'Shagger of the Year' three years running.” He went on to describe how Brand’s show at the Hammersmith Apollo was “extremely sexually explicit” and that women were throwing their bras at the comedian and flashing their naked breasts. “I didn’t do that,” the woman replied. The barrister said that after the show the woman had performed oral sex on Brand “who was effectively a total stranger, because you were obsessed with him at the time”. She replied: “If what you are asking is, would I have met someone … and then perform oral sex on him had he not been the person that he was, the answer is no.” The barrister said the woman was aware that Brand was interested in “transactional” sex when he persuaded her to go to his house after the gig. “I didn’t think I was going to be his girlfriend,” she replied. But the woman denied Winter’s suggestion that Brand had told her he wanted to have anal sex with her. Winter said: “In a way, you went along with what he wanted because you were young and impressionable and obsessed with him. I’m putting to you, you agreed to do that.” She replied: “I didn’t agree to do that.” “The reason I made the comment about going there willingly and regretting it afterwards was because I did not consent to that,” she said. The woman said she had not been able to immediately tell Brand to stop the alleged rape because she was in shock and pain. “In the very first instant I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t breathe,” she said. She said she carried a lot of guilt and shame about what had happened, saying: “Because I went to his house willingly, because I engaged in a consensual type of sex, I didn’t feel I had as much right to feel as bad about it as I did.” When Winter pressed her, she replied: “I felt a lot of burden. I carried that feeling of guilt and shame and I felt lots of things but particularly for exactly the reason that you are doing right here, making me feel like I brought it on myself. That just because you go somewhere willingly and the outcome in the end is not consensual – it’s a different scenario.” The trial continues. Image: Brand and his wife, Laura Gallacher. Photo: Ben Montgomery

De Volkskrant onthulde in februari dat Nathalie van Berkel (D66) een onjuiste voorstelling had gegeven van haar universitaire opleiding, maar eigen journalist @mkeulemans deed jarenlang hetzelfde met zijn academische kwalificaties. Toen @tonfvandijk hoofdredacteur Pieter Klok om opheldering vroeg, luidde het antwoord: ‘Stel je niet zo aan.’ hpdetijd.nl/cultuur-media/me…

Meet former rugby player and public speaker Jen Kish, and singer Shawnee Kish. They are a lesbian couple. Here their little daughter walks around asking "where's dada?" and all they do is laugh while videoing her.

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