Russell Brand charged with rape

Russell Brand has been charged with sexual offences including rape.

On Friday, the Crown Prosecution Service confirmed the Metropolitan Police had been authorised to charge the British actor with a series of offences following a “careful” review of evidence.

“We carefully reviewed the evidence after a police investigation into allegations made following the broadcast of a Channel 4 documentary in September 2023,” Jaswant Narwal, of the Crown Prosecution Service, confirmed in a statement. “We have concluded that Russell Brand should be charged with offences including rape, sexual assault and indecent assault.”

Brand, 49, has been charged with one count of rape, one count of indecent assault, one count of oral rape and two counts of sexual assault. The charges relate to four different women.

It is alleged that the rape took place in the Bournemouth area in 1999, while another woman was allegedly indecently assaulted in the Westminster area of London in 2001. Brand is accused of orally raping and sexually assaulting a woman in the Westminster area of London in 2004, and sexually assaulting another woman in the same area of London between 2004 and 2005.

The Metropolitan Police’s Detective Superintendent Andy Furphy, who is leading the investigation, revealed the women involved “continue to receive support from specially trained officers”.

Detectives began investigating Brand in September 2023 after receiving a series of allegations in the wake of an investigation by the Sunday Times, the Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches.

Brand is due to appear will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 2 May.

The comedian previously denied the allegations and branded them “very hurtful”.