Actor and comedian Russell Brand has been charged with multiple counts of rape and sexual assault in the U.K.
London’s Metropolitan Police force on Friday announced six charges against the 50-year-old podcaster, including one count of rape, one count of indecent assault, one count of oral rape and two counts of sexual assault.
“The women who have made reports continue to receive support from specially trained officers,” Metropolitan Police Detective Superintendent Andy Furphy, who is leading the investigation, said in a statement. “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.”
The charges stem from alleged incidents involving four different women that occurred over a span of six years, including a rape in Bournemouth in 1999, an incidental assault in Westminster, London in 2001, an oral rape and sexual assault in Westminster in 2004 and another sexual assault between 2004 and 2005, also in Westminster, according to the police press release.
They follow an 18-month investigation, triggered by a spate of allegations brought against Brand by multiple women in the fall of 2023. Around that time, The Sunday Times, The Times of London and the TV network Channel 4 published a joint report in which several women accused Brand of sexual assault and rape between 2006 and 2013. It marked the peak of his fame, and a time period during which he married — and subsequently divorced — pop star Katy Perry.
One of the women said she was just 16 when she and the actor — in his 30s at the time — began an “emotionally and sexually abusive” three-month relationship. Another said he raped her in his Los Angeles home in 2012, while a third women claimed he forced himself on her a year later at his residence in West Hollywood.
They were followed up by additional allegations, including that Brand exposed himself to a woman in an office building and then joked about the incident on his radio show.
The comedian, author and “Get Him To The Greek” actor has previously denied the accusations, calling them “hurtful” in a video shared online. He also acknowledged his “promiscuous” past, but he also emphasized that all his encounters have been consensual. Brand has not been charged in the U.S. for any of the alleged assaults said to have occurred in California.
“I was always transparent about [being promiscuous] then — almost too transparent. And I’m being transparent about it now,” Brand added. “To see that transparency metastasized into something criminal, that I absolutely deny.”
Brand is scheduled to appear in Westminster Magistrates’ Court on May 2.
With News Wire Services
