Following an 18-month investigation, British police have charged Russell Brand with rape and sexual assault.
As reported by the Associated Press, the 50-year-old comedian is facing one count of rape, one count of indecent assault, one count of rape, and two counts of sexual assault. London's Metropolitan Police force launched an investigation into Brand following allegations leveled against him by four women. They alleged they were assaulted by Brand in Bournemouth and London between 1999 and 2005.
In a post shared on X, Brand responded to the charges.
"Thank you for these incredible and overwhelming messages of support," he said at the start of the video, seen below. "We're very fortunate, in a way, to live in a time where 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 and tolerate levels of corruption that are unprecedented."
He asked viewers of the video, especially in the UK, how they feel about the current state of law. "When I was young and single... I was fool, man, I was a fool before I lived in the light of the lord," he continued. "I was a drug addict, a sex addict, and an imbecile. But what I never was, was a rapist. I've never engaged in non-consensual activity, I pray that you can see that by looking in my eyes." He concluded the video by advertising an upcoming stream on Rumble and said that he is "incredibly grateful" to be able to defend himself against the charges in court.
The investigation was launched when Channel 4 and the Sunday Times published the claims. The accusers have not been publicly identified and the investigation is still ongoing. He denied the accusations around the time they were published and said that the encounters were consensual. Brand will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London next month to face the charges.
"We have today authorised the Metropolitan Police to charge Russell Brand with a number of sexual offences," said Crown Prosecution Service Chief Crown Prosecutor Jaswant Narwal. "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 offences including rape, sexual assault and indecent assault."
Brand, once a ubiquitous name in comedy, has mostly withdrawn from the public eye in recent years. He became known for his political and cultural activism in the 2010s, but his online activity on YouTube changed substantially around the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. He has since been accused of promoting conspiracy theories.
As reported by The Independent last year, Brand began promoting an amulet that he told fans would prevent them from being "corrupted" by "lethal signals."