Russell Brand faces serious criminal charges including rape, indecent assault, and sexual assault involving four women in the United Kingdom, with incidents spanning from 1999 to 2005.
The Metropolitan Police revealed the charges on Friday, detailing the disturbing allegations against the controversial celebrity. The investigation, which began in September 2023, accuses Brand of committing rape against one woman near Bournemouth, England in 1999, indecently assaulting another woman in 2001, orally raping and sexually assaulting a third woman in 2004, and sexually assaulting a fourth woman between 2004 and 2005. The latter three incidents allegedly took place in London’s Westminster area.
“We have today authorized the Metropolitan Police to charge Russell Brand with a number of sexual offenses,” Jaswant Narwal of the Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement.
“We carefully reviewed the evidence after a police investigation into allegations made following the broadcast of a Channel 4 documentary in September 2023. We have concluded that Russell Brand should be charged with offenses including rape, sexual assault and indecent assault.”
“The women who have made reports continue to receive support from specially trained officers,” Metropolitan Police’s detective superintendent Andy Furphy, who is leading the investigation, said Thursday (via the BBC). “The Met’s investigation remains open and detectives ask anyone who has been affected by this case, or anyone who has any information, to come forward and speak with police.”
Brand—believed to be currently in the United States—must appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on May 2 to face these charges.
Narwal emphasized, “The Crown Prosecution Service reminds everyone that criminal proceedings are active, and the defendant has the right to a fair trial. It is extremely important that there be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings.”
The investigation by London’s police force began after serious allegations surfaced against Brand in September 2023, following extensive reporting by The Times UK and Channel 4’s investigative program Dispatches. Law enforcement received multiple reports of sexual offenses after four women came forward with accusations of rape, sexual assault, and emotional abuse against the comedian.
Prior to the publication of these allegations and the broadcast of the investigative episode, Brand took to social media to defend himself against what he called upcoming “extremely egregious and aggressive attacks,” which he “absolutely refutes.”
In response to the allegations, Tavistock Wood—Brand’s talent agency with a tangential connection to one of the accusations—terminated their relationship with him. A woman who alleged she had a three-month relationship with Brand at age 16, during which he was “emotionally and sexually abusive,” reported approaching Tavistock Wood in 2020 seeking an apology. Instead, she received correspondence from Brand’s legal representation suggesting she was attempting financial gain. It remains unclear whether this accuser is among those connected to the current charges.
The fallout continued as Bluebird, Brand’s U.K. publisher, suspended all book releases associated with the actor and comedian.
Following these accusations, Brand released a video statement characterizing the allegations as “a collaboration between big tech and legacy media organizations to target, control, choke and shut down independent media organizations like this one.”
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