Last night, comedian and conspiracy theorist Russell Brand took to the internet to deny an unspecified crime that no-one had accused him of. Today, the axe fell: he is the subject of a joint exposé by Britain's Channel 4 news and London's The Sunday Times in which he is accused by numerous women of rape, sexual assault and abuse.
Four women are alleging sexual assaults between 2006 and 2013, one of them when she was a schoolgirl. During the period covered by the allegations, Brand was a popular figure on UK television and radio and appeared in Hollywood movies, though in recent years he has carved a new path as a Covid conspiracist.
– One woman alleges that Brand raped her against a wall in his Los Angeles home. She was treated at a rape crisis centre on the same day. The Times says it has seen medical records to support this
– A second woman alleges that Brand assaulted her when he was in his early 30s and she was 16 and still at school. She alleges he referred to her as "the child" during an emotionally abusive and controlling relationship
– A third woman claims that Brand sexually assaulted her while she worked with him in Los Angeles, and that he threatened to take legal action if she told anyone else about her allegation
-The fourth woman alleged being sexually assaulted by Brand and him being physically and emotionally abusive towards her
Brand is stuck in internet brainworm-land, appealing directly to an online audience with rambling statements no lawyer would permit a client to utter—he accuses the women and media of a "co-ordinated attack" that he is "going to look into". Worse, it looks like the accusations were well-known about behind the scenes.
The woman who said she was 16 at the time she met Brand told the Times she took her allegations to his literary agent Angharad Wood, the co-founder of Tavistock Wood, owned by Curtis Brown, in 2020.
Tavistock Wood told the BBC: "Russell Brand categorically and vehemently denied the allegation made in 2020, but we now believe we were horribly misled by him. Tavistock Wood has terminated all professional ties to Brand."
Savilesque.
And then there's this:
In 2006, Dannii Minogue called him "a bit of a vile predator" in the Daily Mirror, when she recalled an early TV interview with Brand. "I certainly don't think he has cured his sex addiction, that's for sure," she said. "He wouldn't take no for an answer… throughout the whole interview, he kept making shocking remarks that I can't even repeat. Just uttering the words would make me blush."
Brand already has one high-profile public defender. Can you guess wh–yep, Elon Musk.
