Prosecutors in Britan have charged Russell Brand with additional counts of sexual assault, including one count of rape.
The criminal charges, announced by the Crown Prosecution Service on Tuesday, stem from separate police reports involving two women filed in 2009. In total, Brand faces criminal allegations of sex crimes against six women.
The actor and comedian is scheduled to appear in court in relation to the new charges — rape and sexual assault — in Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Jan. 20.
“Our prosecutors have worked to establish that there is sufficient evidence to bring these additional charges to court and that it is in the public interest to pursue further criminal proceedings,” said Lionel Idan, Chief Crown Prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, in a statement.
In March, Brand was charged with one count of rape, one count of indecent assault, one count of oral rape and two counts of sexual assault over sex crimes allegedly committed between 1999 and 2005. He pled not guilty.
The alleged crimes relate to a 1999 rape in the Bournemouth area of the U.K.; a 2001 indecent assault of a woman in Westminster, London; the 2004 oral rape and sexual assault of a woman also in Westminster; and the sexual assault of another woman in Westminster between 2004 and 2005.
In a social media post when the charges were announced, Brand denied ever having committed rape or sexual assault. “I’ve never engaged in non-consensual activity,” he said.
Brand added, “We’re very fortunate in a way to live in a time when there’s so little trust in the British government. We’re very fortunate, I suppose, that this is happening at a time where we know that the law has become a kind of weapon to be used against people, institutions and sometimes entire nations that will not accept levels of corruption.”
Law enforcement began investigating the alleged crimes in 2023 after receiving a number of allegations, which followed reporting by Channel 4’s Dispatches and The Sunday Times. One of the women said that Brand entered a relationship with her when he was 31 and she was 16
Brand no longer lives in the U.K. and resides in Florida. A trial is scheduled to start in June.
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