EPARussell Brand
NOS News•today, 5:49 PM•Adjusted today, 6:45 PM
British comedian and actor Russell Brand is accused of raping, assaulting and emotionally abusing multiple women. This is revealed by investigative journalists from British newspapers The Sunday Times, The Times and current affairs programme Channel 4 Dispatches. They spoke to several women and saw messages and even medical data that support the accusations.
Among the four women now accusing Brand is a woman who says she was sixteen when Brand abused her years ago. She explains, among other things, that she had to deceive her parents by saving him in her phone under a different name and that he told her that he was excited that she was still a virgin. He is also said to have stuck his genitals down her throat at some point against her will.
Another woman accuses Brand of raping her in his Los Angeles home. She was then treated in a rape center, where there are also medical documents that have been seen by the investigative journalists. Messages show that she later sent him “when a woman says ‘no’, it means ‘no'”. He then apologized, it can be read.
Fire: everything by mutual consent
In anticipation of the publications, the well-known Briton released a video this afternoon in which he said he distanced himself from the “serious criminal accusations” that would be made against him. Brand speaks of a “long list of astonishing and quite excessive attacks, including a number of very serious accusations that I absolutely refute.”
It is known that Brand struggled with a serious drug addiction shortly after his breakthrough in early 2000. In the period after his recovery, he became addicted to sex, for which he was treated in the US in 2005. He now emphasizes that he has spoken and written extensively in the past about that period and speaks of “a time of promiscuity”, but states that all his sexual relationships at the time were consensual.
The Sunday Times article also features Brand’s former television colleagues, who say that Brand regularly asked employees to approach young women in the audience for him. Two of his former colleagues report that they felt they were working for him as a “pimp”. In one case, such a young woman is said to have later called the employee crying to report how badly Brand had treated her.
Endemol
Another former colleague reports that there was plenty of talk behind the scenes about Brand’s misconduct. He once showed her his genitals in his dressing room and suggested that she could perform oral sex on him there. She never dared to say anything for fear of losing her job, she now tells the newspaper. Later the two allegedly started a relationship, which she told him to keep secret.
At the time, Brand was working on well-watched shows like Big Brother’s Big Mouth in Big Brother’s Efourum, which were then produced by Endemol. Banijay UK, which bought Endemol in 2020, responds to The Sunday Times that it has reviewed the documents from that time and that no documents have been found showing that there was official discussion within Endemol about problems with Brand.
An assistant to the comedian describes Brand as a “narcissist” and says he often walked around in just his underwear while she was working with him. He is also said to have often shown intimate photos of women to his friends in her presence.
Toothbrushing
A third woman who accuses Brand says they met at Alcoholics Anonymous in the US and later worked together and had a brief sexual relationship. Once, when they were working on a project together in the US, he allegedly wanted sex. She wasn’t interested in that, but that didn’t stop him from chasing her naked and grabbing her. When she continued to refuse, he became furious and fired her.
The fourth victim the newspaper writes about is an ex-girlfriend of Brand, Jordan Martin. Although she did not want to talk about her experience, she says she still supports the accusations of misconduct that she previously made in a book about him. For example, he allegedly groped her against her will and forced her to brush her teeth until her gums bled “so that she would taste anonymously” to him.
Sources told the newspaper that Brand’s misconduct behind the scenes at both the BBC and other employers was an “open secret”. There were also complaints to the BBC, but nothing or too little was done about them. Complaints are also said to have been known to Channel 4; the broadcaster says it is investigating.
2023-09-16 15:49:41
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