Russell Brand has been accused of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse over a period spanning seven years and during the height of his fame.
Allegations from four women, including one who claimed she was just 16 when the comedian “groomed” her, emerged as part of an investigation by Channel 4 Dispatches and The Sunday Times.
Brand, 48, who is currently on tour in the UK, has vehemently denied the “very, very serious criminal allegations”, insisting that all of his sexual relations have been consensual.
On Saturday, senior Conservative MPs responded to the claims by emphasizing the duty of public service broadcasters to investigate the claims.
Just hours before the allegations became public, Brand posted a video on YouTube stating that he had received “two extremely disturbing letters” from journalists detailing “a litany of extremely egregious and aggressive attacks.”
In his frank broadside, he claimed that the “staggering” and “quite baroque attacks” had made him feel like he was “being attacked” by the “mainstream media” who had a “serious and concerted agenda to silence him.”
The allegations relate to a period between 2006 and 2013, when Brand was working as a presenter for BBC Radio 2 and Channel 4, as well as landing leading roles in Hollywood films.
Woman claims their relationship began when she was 16
A woman claimed she began a relationship with the comedian when she was a 16-year-old schoolgirl and he was 31.
The woman, who has not been identified, said she had a three-month relationship with Brand, who at the time was a BBC radio presenter. He claimed that he referred to her as “the girl.”
She also said he approached her in London in 2006 when she was recovering from an eating disorder and that her mother was upset about her relationship with Brand, insisting that her daughter text her her age.
However, she told The Sunday Times that she persisted in the relationship and that he was “very charming and very attentive”, but became fascinated with her virginity, before they finally had sex.
Although she was already over the legal age of consent, she said she felt he was “grooming” her and alleges he became controlling. She claimed she had to “punch him really hard in the stomach to get him out” during a sexual encounter.
The relationship ended when she found him in bed with another woman, she said.
“I think he was very clever at starting to make his identity: ‘I’m the ladies’ man.’ I am a sex addict. I’m inappropriate but it’s all just a joke, it’s funny,’” she told the paper. “It’s a smokescreen for a lot more of his dark behavior,” she said.
In his statement, Brand admitted he had been promiscuous but said “the relationships were absolutely and always consensual.”
Brand ‘absolutely denies’ the claims
And he added: “I was always transparent about it then, almost too transparent, and I am now too, and seeing that transparency metastasize into something criminal, which I flatly deny, makes me wonder: is there something else?” Agenda at stake?
The investigation also includes the account of a businesswoman, identified only as Nadia, who claimed that Brand raped her against a wall in his Los Angeles home during a consensual relationship in 2012.
She said she found his “glassy look” disturbing, so she didn’t know “what was going on in his head.”
She reportedly claimed that when she rejected his suggestion that she join a “friend in the bedroom,” he forced himself on her despite her repeatedly telling him, “Get off.”
In a text message that The Sunday Times claims to have authenticated, the woman, aged in her 30s, told him: “When a girl says[s] “NO, means no.” Brand apparently responded: “I’m so sorry.”
She told Dispatches she is “completely disgusted” by the way she claims he treated her.
Another woman, named only Phoebe and in her 20s, said she had a brief consensual relationship with him in 2013.
The couple, who apparently met at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, had begun working on projects together. When she was alone in her West Hollywood home, she claims he “grabbed me and put me in bed,” adding that she saw “something pass through his eyes, I swear to God, as a black man, his eyes had no more color.” “They were black as hell.”
She claimed he sexually assaulted her, before she relented, but then became very angry.
He claims legal action was threatened
Phoebe said she went back to work for Brand, who she said then threatened legal action if she reported or shared the incident.
The fourth woman claims Brand sexually assaulted her and also claimed he physically and emotionally abused her.
In Brand’s video, posted on a channel where he has made a number of anti-vaccine claims, he said he had been warned to “be careful…they are coming for you, you are getting closer to the truth.”
He added that he believes he has been attacked because “there is a serious and concerted agenda to control this type of [sic] of spaces, and this type [sic] of voices.”
