Multiple women have come forward alleging that British actor and comedian Russell Brand sexually assaulted and abused them, including one who says she was just 16 at the time she was victimized, the BBC reports.
On Saturday, the Sunday Times published allegations from five women as part of a joint investigation with British broadcaster Channel 4. Four of the women say Brand sexually assaulted them.
“The allegations include rape, sexual assault and controlling and emotionally abusive behavior,” a video posted by Channel 4 states.
At least two of women allege Brand sexually assaulted them in Los Angeles. One woman also said she was just 16 when she was abused by Brand, then in his early 30s. He allegedly referred to her as “the child” in what she described as a relationship marked by emotional abuse and controlling behavior, according to the BBC.
The women allege the assaults and abuse occurred between 2006 and 2013.
EXCLUSIVE: Russell Brand denies accusations of rape, sexual assault and controlling and emotionally abusive behaviour.
Five women share their stories with @C4Dispatches in a joint investigation with @thetimes.
Watch Russell Brand: In Plain Sight tonight at 9pm on @Channel4 pic.twitter.com/gmVMCAsh2B
— Channel 4 Dispatches (@C4Dispatches) September 16, 2023
“He’s grabbing at my . . . my underwear, pulling it to the side. I’m telling him to get off me and he won’t get off . . . Like holding me up against the wall, pushing himself in me,” one woman said describing an alleged encounter with Brand, according to Channel 4.
Another woman told reporters: “He grabbed me and got me on the bed. I was fully clothed, and he was naked at this point. And he held me down and he was just aggressively trying to you know f*** me.”
“I was like ‘oh my god, he raped me,’’ another woman told the news outlets.
“He forced his penis down my throat, and I couldn’t breathe, he was just choking me. I was crying and he said, ‘oh, I only wanted to see your mascara run anyway,” one woman said, according to Channel 4.
Hours before the news outlets publishing their reporting, Brand, 48, issued a video on social media denying any wrongdoing and stating that his relationships are always consensual, according to The Guardian.
“These allegations pertain to the time when I was working in the mainstream, when I was in the newspapers all the time, when I was in the movies and, as I’ve written about extensively in my books, I was very, very promiscuous,” Brand said in the video.
“Now during that time of promiscuity, the relationships I had were absolutely, always consensual. I was always transparent about that then, almost too transparent, and I’m being transparent about it now as well, and to see that transparency metastasized into something criminal, that I absolutely deny, makes me question: Is there another agenda at play?”
He added: “What I seriously refute are these very, very serious criminal allegations . . . There are witnesses whose evidence directly contradicts the narratives that these two mainstream media outlets are trying to construct, apparently in what seems to me to be a coordinated attack.”
For the latest true crime and justice news, subscribe to the ‘Crime Stories with Nancy Grace’ podcast. Listen to the latest episode:
[Feature Photo: Comedian Russell Brand speaks in Parliament Square during a protest against the Conservative Government and it’s austerity policies in London, Saturday, June 20, 2015. The protest is intended to be peaceful, but demonstrators are angry at public sector cuts meant to address government deficits, which ballooned after Britain rescued troubled banks during the 2008 financial crisis. Demonstrators argue the public is being punished for a crisis it did not cause. (AP Photo/Tim Ireland)]
