Actor and comedian Russell Brand has been charged with one count of rape, one count of oral rape, two counts of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault, the Metropolitan Police in London announced Friday.
The charges relate to four separate women. The alleged crimes span from 1999 to 2005, authorities said.
“The women who have made reports continue to receive support from specially trained officers,” Metropolitan Police Detective Superintendent Andy Furphy said in a statement. “The Met’s investigation remains open and detectives ask anyone who has been affected by this case, or anyone who has any information, to come forward and speak with police. A dedicated team of investigators is available via email at ku.ecilop.tem@TIC.”
Brand, 50, is due in court in London on May 2.
ABC News has reached out to representatives for Brand for comment on the charges.
In a video message shared to social platform X on Friday, Brand responded to the charges.
“I’ve always told you guys that when I was young and single, before I had my wife and family … I was a fool, man, I was a fool before I lived in the light of the Lord,” Brand said. “I was a drug addict, a sex addict and an imbecile. But what I never was, was a rapist. I’ve never engaged in nonconsensual activity. I pray that you can see that by looking in my eyes.”
He then thanked his supporters, adding he is “incredibly grateful” to defend the charges in court.
Metropolitan Police said Friday that the charges stem from an investigation that began in September 2023.
That month, Britain’s Channel 4 program Dispatches aired a documentary episode, the result of a joint investigation with The Times and The Sunday Times, called Russell Brand: In Plain Sight. The documentary involved four unnamed women who claimed they had been raped or sexually assaulted by Brand between 2006 and 2013.
Following the airing of that episode, Metropolitan Police announced they had opened an investigation after they “received a number of allegations of sexual offences.” Police did not name Brand at the time but referenced a television documentary and news investigations, according to The Associated Press.
In October 2023, in a separate case, the Thames Valley Police in South East England told ABC News they were also investigating allegations of harassment and stalking against Brand “dating back to 2018.”
The actor, known for his stand-up comedy acts and his film role in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, denied all allegations.
Brand claimed in a September 2023 YouTube video, posted prior to the documentary’s release, that he had received a pair of “extremely disturbing letters” from what he described as a “mainstream media” outlet and news publication that outlined “very serious allegations that I absolutely refute.”
At the time, Brand claimed the allegations “pertain to the time when I was working in the mainstream” and “in the newspapers all the time, when I was in the movies.”
“As I have written about extensively in my books, I was very, very promiscuous,” he said in that video. “Now, during that time of promiscuity, the relationships I had were absolutely, always consensual. I was always transparent about that then, almost too transparent, and I am being transparent about it now as well.”
Brand suggested that the allegations were part of a “coordinated media attack” intended to discredit him.
In addition to acting and comedy, Brand has worked as a political commentator and wellness influencer.
He was previously married to singer Katy Perry from 2010 until their divorce in 2012. Brand married Laura Gallacher in 2017. The couple have three children.
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