Russell Brand has been charged with rape, sexual assault and indecent assault in the U.K. following claims from four different women who cited alleged incidents that took place between 1999 and 2005.
What Is Russell Brand Accused of?
The Forgetting Sarah Marshall actor was charged with one count of rape, one count of indecent assault, one count of oral rape and two counts of sexual assault, the Crown Prosecution Service announced in a press release on April 4, 2025.
“We have today authorized the Metropolitan Police to charge Russell Brand with a number of sexual offenses,” a spokesperson for the CPS, Jaswant Narwal, said in a statement obtained by Us Weekly. “We carefully reviewed the evidence after a police investigation into allegations made following the broadcast of a Channel 4 documentary in September 2023. We have concluded that Russell Brand should be charged with offenses including rape, sexual assault and indecent assault.”
Brand is facing charges based on claims from separate four women: one who claims she was raped in Bournemouth in 1999; another who alleges an indecent assault in London in 2001; a third who says she was orally raped and sexually assaulted in London in 2004; and a fourth who alleges she was sexually assaulted in London between 2004 and 2005.
“The women who have made reports continue to receive support from specially trained officers,” Metropolitan Police detective Andy Furphy said in the press release. “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. “Support is also available by contacting the independent charity, Rape Crisis at 24/7 Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Line.”
Brand is set to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on May 2, 2025.
The four women — who remain anonymous — previously came forward in September 2023 to accuse the comedian in a joint investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4 current affairs show Dispatches.
Russell Brand Addressed the Rape and Sexual Assault Allegations With a Denial
“When I was young and single, before I had my wife and family, I was a fool,” Brand said in a video posted via X on April 4, 2025. “I was a fool before I lived in the light of the Lord. I was a drug addict, a sex addict and an imbicile, 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.”
Brand previously denied the sexual misconduct accusations against him, releasing a statement pre-empting the Channel 4 documentary release in 2023.
“I’ve received two extremely disturbing letters, or a letter and an email, one from a mainstream media TV company, one from a newspaper, listing a litany of extremely egregious and aggressive attacks,” he said in a September 2023 video posted to X. “But amidst this litany of astonishing, rather baroque attacks are some very serious allegations that I absolutely refute.”
Without directly mentioning the accusers, he claimed that they “pertained to the time when I was working in the mainstream” as an actor and condemned the stories as false. “It’s worth mentioning that there are witnesses whose evidence directly contradicts the narratives that these two mainstream media outlets are trying to construct apparently, in what seems to me to be, a coordinated attack,” he claimed. “Now, I don’t want to get into this any further, because of the serious nature of the allegations, but I feel like I’m being attacked and plainly they are working very closely together.”
