Russell Brand denies Dispatches documentary claims

More women have come forward with allegations about the way they were treated by Russell Brand after The Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches aired their investigation over the weekend.

The Times and Sunday Times claim they have been contacted by “several women” with allegations about the comedian’s behaviour in the early 2000s.

These come in addition to the four women who alleged they were sexually assaulted by him during the height of his fame between 2006 and 2013 – allegations which he denies.

The Times reports that the new allegations “have not been investigated and will now be rigorously checked”.

The paper also said that one of Brand’s accusers, referred to as Nadia and who claims he raped her in 2012, said she’s “proud” of the women coming forward.

She said: “He cannot hurt me any more and hopefully he will not hurt anybody else. I’m super proud of all the women who have come forward.

“I know how hard it is thinking ‘I’m the only one’ and ‘Who is going to believe me’. It was all very hard to read and to watch but I think it’s very necessary because he needs to be stopped.”

The comedian has denied all allegations against him and said all his relationships were consensual.

He said in a pre-emptive video on Friday that he was “very, very promiscuous” but that he “refutes these very, very serious criminal allegations”.

On Sunday, the Metropolitan Police said anybody who believes they have been a victim of sexual assault should come forward.

The force said in a statement: “We are aware of media reporting of a series of allegations of sexual assault.

“At this time, we have not received any reports in relation to this. If anyone believes they have been the victim of a sexual assault, no matter how long ago it happened, we would encourage them to contact police.”

Channel 4 and production company Banijay UK, which produced Big Brother and its spin-offs, have both launched investigations

BBC also said it was “urgently looking into the issues raised”.

The broadcaster said in a statement: “The documentary and associated reports contained serious allegations, spanning a number of years.

“Russell Brand worked on BBC radio programmes between 2006 and 2008 and we are urgently looking into the issues raised.”

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Russell Brand’s statement in full

In a lengthy statement made on YouTube, he said: “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, as well as some pretty stupid stuff like, my community festival should be stopped, that I shouldn’t be able to attack mainstream media narratives on this channel, but amidst this litany of astonishing, rather baroque attacks are some very serious allegations that I absolutely refute.

“These allegations pertain to the time when I was working in the mainstream, when I was in the newspapers all the time, when I was in the movies, and as I’ve written about extensively in my books, I was very very promiscuous.

“Now during that time of promiscuity, the relationships I had were absolutely, always consensual. I was always transparent about that then, almost too transparent, and I’m being transparent about it now as well, and to see that transparency metastasized into something criminal, that I absolutely deny, makes me question, is there another agenda at play?

“Particularly when we’ve seen co-ordinated media attacks before, like with Joe Rogan, when he dared to take a medicine that the mainstream media didn’t approve of, and we saw a spate of headlines from media outlets across the world, using the same language. I’m aware that you guys have been saying in the comments for a while, “watch out Russell, they’re coming for you, you’re getting too close to the truth, Russell Brand did not kill himself”, I know that a year ago there was a spate of articles, “Russell Brand’s a conspiracy theorist”, “Russell Brand’s right wing”.

“I’m aware of news media making phone calls, sending letters to people I know for ages and ages, it’s been clear to me, or at least it feels to me, like there’s a serious and concerted agenda to control these kind of spaces, and these kind of voices, and I mean my voice along with your voice.

“I don’t mind them using my books and my stand up to talk about my promiscuous, consensual conduct in the past, what I seriously refute are these very very serious criminal allegations.

“Also 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 co-ordinated attack.

“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.

“We are obviously going to look into this matter, because it’s very very serious. In the meantime I want you to stay close, stay awake, but more important than any of that, if you can, please stay free.”

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