UK comedian Russell Brand faces new rape, assault charges

By : AFP

Date: 23 December 2025 9:47pm WAT

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Russell Brand

Russell Brand

UK police said two new charges, of rape and sexual assault, had been issued on Tuesday against British comedian and actor Russell Brand.

The media personality turned anti-establishment influencer already pleaded not guilty in May to five charges — one count of rape, one of oral rape, two of sexual assault and one of indecent assault between 1999 and 2005.

“These new charges are in relation to two further women and are in addition to the charges issued to Brand in April 2025 which involved four women,” the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

It stressed the total charges now related to six women after further police investigations.

Brand, 50, the ex-husband of US singer Katy Perry, has been summoned to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on January 20 to face the two new charges.

A trial is set to begin at Southwark Crown Court on June 16 on the five original charges.

On X, after the new charges against him were announced, Brand said he felt “blessed” to “have the opportunity to atone for the many things over the years I did wrong” and for being able “to ensure that people understand the truth of my situation”.

He said: “I pray Lord that anyone that I’ve harmed or hurt in my years of mindlessness in sin would be healed.”

– Investigation ongoing –

Prosecutors charged Brand following a police probe into allegations aired in a Channel 4 documentary.

He is accused of raping one woman in a hotel room following an event in the southern Bournemouth area in 1999. Another charge relates to the oral rape and sexual assault of a woman in 2004 in central London.

After those initial charges, Brand posted a video to social media saying “I never was a rapist. I’ve never engaged in non-consensual activity”.

Detective Chief Inspector Tariq Farooqi said that the women who have reported Brand’s alleged behaviour “continue to receive support from specially trained officers”.

He added the police investigation was ongoing and urged “anyone affected by this case, or anyone with information, to come forward”.

Born in 1975 to working-class parents in Essex, east of London, Brand began his stand-up career as a teenager, eventually working as an MTV presenter and host of a Big Brother spin-off.

He presented a show on the BBC’s Radio 2 station between 2006 and 2008, but quit after an on-air prank when he left a sexually explicit voicemail for “Fawlty Towers” actor Andrew Sachs about his granddaughter.

Once a left-leaning political campaigner and Hollywood star, he has rebranded himself as a conservative guru to his millions of social media followers.

Last year, he said he became a Christian after being baptised in the Thames river.

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