- Russell Brand is an English comedian and actor
- He was previously married to US singer Katy Perry
- He has been charged with some serious charges
Actor and comedian Russell Brand, 49, has been charged with crimes related to incidents between 1999 and 2005. He had been in the spotlight before for being accused of similar crimes, but he has maintained his innocence. If you’re not from the UK, you may not know Brand.
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Before he became an actor, Brand was a stand-up comedian and radio host. In the UK, he got his big break presenting for MTV UK and the Big Brother talk show Big Brother’s Bit on the Side. He became known in the US with film roles in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him to the Greek.
His radio show, The Russell Brand Show on BBC Radio 2, also gained him some notoriety. However, his short-lived marriage to singer Katy Perry, 40, from 2010 until 2012, made him more recognizable.
Now his career appears to be over because of the charges against him. But what has the actor been charged with?
What are the charges against Russell Brand?
The BBC reports that the actor has been charged with “rape, indecent assault and sexual assault”.
According to the news source, the charges are concerning four separate women. He has been interviewed by police multiple times concerning the allegations. In 2023, the allegations came to light after several journalistic sources exposed serious allegations against the actor. These included UK TV channel Channel 4 and their investigative show Dispatches.
Concerning the accusations, he has vehemently denied them.
The London Metropolitan Police stated Brand’s charges and the allegations against him.
They also said they wrote to the comedian about what he had been charged with. Here are the charges:
- One allegation of rape
- An allegation of indecent assault
- One allegation of oral rape
- Two further counts of sexual assault
And here is how the charges relate to each woman.
- Rape – a woman was raped in 1999 in Bournemouth, in Dorset
- Indecent assault – a woman was indecently assaulted in Westminster, London, in 2001.
- Oral rape and sexual assault – Relating to the same woman. A woman was sexually assaulted and orally raped in 2004 in Westminster in London.
- Sexual assault – Between 2004 and 2005, a woman was sexually assaulted, also in the Westminster area of London.
When is the trial?
Brand will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 2 May in London. In recent years, Brand lived in the US, so if he doesn’t comply with authorities, he may be extradited to England.
What about the investigation against Russell Brand?
The investigation against Brand has been ongoing since September 2023. The UK prosecution service, the Crown Prosecution Service, as it is known, put out a statement about Brand’s charges.
Jaswant Narwal, a spokesperson for the prosecuting body, said: “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 statement continued.
The 49-year-old has not been convicted, as criminal proceedings are still active, so no convictions have been made.
Brand has not commented on the allegations. His last post shared on his social media was on 3 April, a clip from a podcast episode on his Instagram Stories.
