Comedian and actor Russell Brand is accused of sexually assaulting a woman by touching her breasts and indecently assaulting another by grabbing her arm and dragging her towards a male toilet, court documents show.
Brand, 49, who is understood to be living in the US, was charged by post last month with one count each of rape, indecent assault and oral rape, as well as two counts of sexual assault, relating to four separate women.
An investigation was launched after Brand was accused of rape, sexual assaults and emotional abuse by several women, in a joint investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4 Dispatches, in September 2023.
It is currently unclear whether Brand will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday, but in a video posted on X after he was charged, the comedian said: ‘I am now going to have the opportunity to defend these charges in court and I’m incredibly grateful for that.’
He said in the clip: ‘I’ve always told you guys that when I was young and single before I had a wife and family, who are there just out of shot. I was a fool, man, 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 non-consensual activity, and I pray that you can see that in my eyes.’
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He concluded: ‘Of course I’m now gonna have the opportunity to defend these charges in court and I’m incredibly grateful for that. In the meantime you lot, stay free and we will be continuing to discuss this matter, praise the Lord.’
He was also issued with a court summons.
Court documents which lay out the details of the charges show Brand is accused of indecently assaulting a woman in 2001 by ‘grabbing her arm and dragging her towards a male toilet’ and sexually assaulting another woman in Westminster, London, in 2004, by touching her breasts without her consent.
Brand is also charged with orally raping the woman he is accused of sexually assaulting in 2004.
The comedian is further alleged to have raped a woman in 1999 in the Bournemouth area, and sexually assaulted another woman between 2004 and 2005 in Westminster.
Brand, who presented a BBC Radio 2 show between 2006 and 2008, left the role after his on-air prank, now known as Sachsgate, when he left a ‘lewd’ voicemail for Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs about his granddaughter.
After he was dismissed from his job as an MTV presenter in the early 2000s, he rose to fame in 2004 as the host of Big Brother spin-off Big Brother’s Big Mouth.
The TV and film star was married to US pop singer Katy Perry from 2010 to 2012 but is now married to Laura Gallacher, the sister of presenter Kirsty, and the couple have two children, Mabel and Peggy.
The Rumble content creator, who is a vocal Trump supporter, moved to the US in recent months and is currently believed to be living in Florida.
Last year, Brand announced he was joining Christianity and was baptised in the River Thames in a ceremony involving TV adventurer Bear Grylls.
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