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Home / World

Russell Brand faces court over sexual offence charges in UK

Daily Telegraph UK
1 May, 2025 09:29 PM4 mins to read

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Russell Brand has addressed the allegations in a video posted on YouTube and Twitter (now known as X). Photo / Youtube

Russell Brand has addressed the allegations in a video posted on YouTube and Twitter (now known as X). Photo / Youtube

  • Russell Brand faces five sexual offence charges, including rape and indecent assault, involving four women.
  • Brand denies the allegations, stating he has “never engaged in non-consensual activity”.
  • The police investigation began after a September 2023 report by the Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches.

Comedian and actor Russell Brand is accused of indecently assaulting a woman by grabbing her arm and dragging her towards a men’s lavatory, court documents show.

The 49-year-old has been charged with five sexual offences, including the rape of a woman in Bournemouth in 1999 and the oral rape of another in 2004.

Brand, who lives in the US, is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court today (local time).

It is unclear whether the comedian-turned-podcaster will return for the hearing, but in a video on Wednesday he said that he was “heading to the UK for what I am assured will be a simple formality”.

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He added: “I am absolutely open to and welcome the opportunity to defend myself because my innocence is indefatigable.”

He said that “fingers crossed”, he would be back livestreaming his daily show on Monday.

Brand was charged last month with one count of rape, indecent assault and oral rape, as well as two counts of sexual assault, relating to four women.

He was also issued with a court summons.

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Court documents that lay out the details of the charges show Brand is accused of indecently assaulting a woman in 2001 by “grabbing her arm and dragging her towards a male toilet”.

He is also alleged to have sexually assaulted another woman in Westminster, London in 2004 by touching her breasts without her consent. He is also accused of orally raping the woman that same year.

The comedian is further alleged to have raped a woman in 1999 in the Bournemouth area, and to have sexually assaulted another woman between 2004 and 2005 in Westminster.

The police began an investigation into Brand’s alleged wrongdoing in September 2023 after the Sunday Times and Channel 4’s non-consensual published an investigation into allegations about his treatment of women.

Addressing his 11.3 million followers on X after the charges were revealed last month, Brand rejected the allegations, saying he was “never a rapist”, and that he has “never engaged in non-consensual activity”.

He said: “I’ve always told you guys that when I was young and single, before I had a wife and family… I was a fool, man.

“I was a fool before I lived in the light of the Lord... I have never engaged in non-consensual activity, I pray you can see that by looking in my eyes.”

Last month, he was seen on the stage of a music event hosted by Brandon Lake, an American Christian singer, at the Riviera Theatre in Charleston, South Carolina.

He moved his family to a $1 million bungalow in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida in 2024 and is regularly seen at the weekend farmer’s market, near the beach and in the town square.

The beach town, nicknamed “The Hamptons of the South”, is a popular choice for celebrities, with its 300-plus homes, lush gardens and sugar-white beaches.

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Brand emerged as a break-out television personality in the mid-2000s and became one of the most popular comedy stars on Channel 4.

In April 2006, he was given his own show on BBC Radio 2 that attracted a listenership of 400,000 people.

Two years later, he was forced to resign after he and Jonathan Ross, the BBC presenter, recorded live on air a series of lewd phone messages for the Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs, then aged 78, about his granddaughter.

In recent years, he has reinvented himself as an anti-woke political podcaster, amassing millions of online followers tuning in to hear his conspiracy theories on the alternative video platform Rumble.

Last year, Brand announced that he had been baptised and had embraced Christianity.

Before moving to the US, Brand lived in a £3.3 million house on the banks of the Thames with his wife, Laura Gallacher, 37, and their three children.

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He had travelled regularly to the US while building an online following among supporters of Donald Trump.

Brand has endorsed Trump in videos on his social media platforms and was pictured attending the US President’s inauguration in January.

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