Russell Brand denies allegations after U.K charges him with rape and sexual assault
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British comedian Russell Brand has been charged with rape and assault by authorities in the U.K.
The 49-year-old actor, known for his work in R-rated comedies including “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “Get Him to the Greek,” was charged with single counts of rape, indecent assault, oral rape and two counts of sexual assault, the Metropolitan Police Service announced in a statement.
In a joint investigation published Saturday by the Times of London and Channel 4, multiple women accused Brand of rape, sexual assault and other abusive behavior at the height of his fame.
The charges are connected to alleged attacks on multiple women between 1999 and 2005. He is scheduled to face charges before the Westminster Magistrates’ Court on May 2.
Brand posted a video Friday denying the allegations.
“I’ve always told you guys that when I was young, and single, before I had my wife and family ... I was a fool, man,” he said.
“I was a fool before I lived in the light of the Lord. I was a drug addict, a sex addict and an imbecile. But what I never was was a rapist. I’ve never engaged in nonconsensual activities. I pray you can tell that by looking in my eyes.”
He said he was “incredibly grateful” to have the opportunity to defend against the charges in court and noted that the law had become “kind of a weapon” to use against those who won’t tolerate the level of corruption he believes exists in the U.K. government.
Russell Brand, finding solace in Christianity amid rape and sexual assault allegations, reveals he was baptized over the weekend. ‘This is my path now,’ he said.
Brand relocated his family last year from the U.K. to Santa Rosa Beach, Fla., shortly before the 2024 U.S. presidential election, the Sun reported in February.
Brand has pivoted away from acting in recent years and worked to refashion himself as an anti-establishment commentator, and made news a year ago announcing he had been baptized.
The baptism came months after numerous women alleged they were sexually assaulted by him between 2006 and 2013. The accusations first surfaced in a joint investigation published in September 2023 by the Times of London and U.K. Channel 4’s “Dispatches” news program.
Brand denied the allegations a day before their publication, saying in a YouTube video, “The relationships I had were absolutely, always consensual.”
Actor Gabriel Olds is facing a life sentence in what prosecutors say was a string of terrifying sexual assaults on romantic partners.
He added: “I was always transparent about that then. Almost too transparent, and I’m being transparent now. To see that transparency metastasized into something criminal that I absolutely deny makes me question: Is there another agenda at play?”
In November 2023, the BBC reported it had received five workplace complaints about the actor, who was a BBC Radio host from 2006 to 2008. Additionally, a woman who worked as an extra in the 2011 “Arthur” movie reboot sued Brand in Suffolk County, N.Y., under the state’s Adult Survivors Act, which expanded the statute of limitations window on some sexual assault cases. She alleges he assaulted her in a bathroom during filming in 2010.
A month later, Brand was interviewed “under caution by detectives in relation to a further six, non-recent, sexual offenses,” the Associated Press reported.
Times assistant editor Christie D’Zurilla and former staff writer Meredith Blake contributed to this report.
