Russell Brand has been accused of rape, sexual assault and physical and emotional abuse by five women — four who remained anonymous — including a 16-year-old, according to a joint investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times and U.K. current affairs show Channel 4 Dispatches.
The media outlets reported — in an article published by The Times on Saturday and during an episode of Dispatches on Saturday evening local time — that the incidents allegedly transpired between 2006 and 2013 when the comedian, 48, was a presenter for BBC Radio 2 and Channel 4 and a Hollywood film actor.
Brand denied the allegations in a video shared on social media on Friday, saying that he “absolutely refutes” the claims and describing them as “extremely egregious and aggressive attacks.”
According toThe Times article, the first incident allegedly occurred in 2006 when Brand was 30 years old and worked as the host of Channel 4’s Big Brother’s Big Mouth and as a BBC radio presenter. The female accuser, who was 16 at the time, alleged that Brand immediately asked her on their first date to confirm her age, telling her, “I don’t give a f— if you’re 12… I need to know where I stand legally.”
The unidentified woman also accused Brand of removing his condom during sex one time without her knowledge. Following his 31st birthday, she said that Brand sexually assaulted her when “he forced his penis down my throat,” per The Times.
“It was just choking me and I couldn’t breathe, and I was pushing him away and he wasn’t backing off at all,” said the woman, according to the outlet. “I ended up having to punch him really hard in the stomach to get him off. I was crying and he said, ‘Oh I only wanted to see your mascara run anyway.’”
She said Brand then “climbed on top of her, held open her mouth and drooled into it,” telling The Times, “I was gagging and trying to fight him off me, but he’s lying on top of me, so I can’t. My limbs are trapped underneath him.”
Describing what she was thinking at the time, she alleged that “he held my mouth shut and made me swallow it and so I was just gagging and crying.”
A second unidentified woman reportedly accused Brand of raping her against a wall in his Los Angeles home on July 1, 2012. She said that following her attempt to leave, he greeted her naked, kissed her against a wall and said “a friend” was already in the bedroom.
“I tried to get away from him and I slipped away from the wall. And then I went to another wall that had a painting on it. A huge painting. And my bag got actually stuck underneath that, and it’s still on my arm. And at this point he’s grabbing at my underwear, pulling it to the side,” she told The Times.
She said that she told Brand to “get off” even though she “couldn’t move” because she “was stuck underneath the painting and he’s pushing up against me.” She alleged that he then raped her without a condom.
She told The Times she went to the Rape Treatment Center (RTC) at UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center later that day, and provided the outlet with a copy of her medical records that show “she provided her underwear and other samples as evidence, which were frozen.”
