Russell Brand charged with rape and sexual assault of 4 women

Actor and comedian Russell Brand has been charged with rape, indecent assault, and sexual assault for incidents that took place between the years of 1999 and 2005. 

The Metropolitan Police Service announced on Friday that the Crown Prosecution Service authorized them to charge Brand, 50, with one count of rape, one count of indecent assault, one count of oral rape, and two counts of sexual assault following an investigation by detectives. He is set to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on May 2. 

The charges relate to four separate women. Brand is accused of raping one woman in Bournemouth, England, in 1999; indecently assaulting a second woman in London in 2001; orally raping and sexually assaulting a third woman in London in 2004; and sexually assaulting a fourth woman in London between 2004 and 2005.

Representatives for Brand did not immediately respond to Entertainment Weekly‘s request for comment. He has denied other sexual assault allegations in the past.

“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 detectives began investigating Brand in September 2023 after receiving a slew of allegations, which were reported as part of a joint investigation by The U.K. Times, The Sunday Times, and U.K. network Channel 4’s television series Dispatches that same month, according to a press release from the Metropolitan Police Service.

The reported assaults included in the investigation were alleged to have occurred between the years of 2006 and 2013, during which Brand starred in popular films like 2008’s Forgetting Sarah Marshall and 2010’s Get Him to the Greek. Brand denied the claims in a YouTube video released ahead of the investigation’s findings in 2023.

“I’ve received two extremely disturbing letters — or a letter and an email — one from a mainstream media TV company, one from a newspaper, listing a litany of extremely egregious and aggressive attacks,” Brand said. “But amidst this litany of astonishing, rather baroque, attacks are some very serious allegations that I absolutely refute. 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.”

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He continued, “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…”

Brand, who was also accused of sexual assault in a separate 2023 case, has courted controversy throughout his career. These days, he is most commonly known as a controversial YouTuber who often discusses American politics and platforms conservative pundits like Tucker Carlson. He previously garnered criticism for peddling conspiracy theories and misinformation about COVID-19. 

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.