Russell Brand charged with rape [UPDATED]

In a statement (via the BBC), Jaswant Narwal of the Crown Prosecution Service said, “We have today authorised the Metropolitan Police to charge Russell Brand with a number of sexual offences. We carefully reviewed the evidence after a police investigation into allegations made following the broadcast of a Channel 4 documentary in September 2023. We have concluded that Russell Brand should be charged with offences including rape, sexual assault and indecent assault. These relate to reported non-recent offences between 1999 and 2005, involving four women. The Crown Prosecution Service reminds everyone that criminal proceedings are active, and the defendant has the right to a fair trial. It is extremely important that there be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings.”

The specific allegations include a woman was raped in the Bournemouth area in 1999; a woman was indecently assaulted in the Westminster area of London in 2001; a woman was orally raped and sexually assaulted in the Westminster area of London in 2004; and a woman was sexually assaulted in the Westminster area of London between 2004 and 2005. “The women who have made reports continue to receive support from specially trained officers,” detective superintendent Andy Furphy 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. A dedicated team of investigators is available via email at [email protected].”

Following the joint report and its fallout, which included investigations from the Met and internal investigations at the BBC, Channel 4, and production company Banijay, Brand relocated to the United States. He has since pivoted to evangelical preaching and right-wing conspiracy theory content creation; he now hangs out at Mar-A-Lago with Donald Trump’s inner circle and has been photographed with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on multiple occasions. He is expected in a U.K. court on May 2. Brand responded to news of the charges against him in a new video posted to social media, saying he was “incredibly grateful” to have “the opportunity to defend these charges in court.”

Brand promised his audience that he’d “be continuing to discuss this matter,” but said, “I’ve always told you guys that when I was young and single, before I had my wife and family who are just out of shot over there, my beautiful children, I was a fool, man. I was a fool before I lived in the light of the lord. I was a drug addict, sex addict, and an imbecile. But what I never was, was a rapist. I’ve never engaged in nonconsensual activity, I pray that you can see that by looking in my eyes.” He also proselytized, “We’re very fortunate, in a way, to live in a time when there is so little trust in the British government. We’re very fortunate, I suppose, that this is happening at a time where we know that the law has become a kind of weapon to be used against people, institutions, and sometimes entire nations that will not accept and tolerate levels of corruption that are unprecedented.”