Russell Brand charged with new offences of rape and sexual assault

Russell Brand has been charged with two further offences, including one count of rape, the Metropolitan Police has said.

In a statement released yesterday (December 23), the police force said the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has authorised an additional charge of rape and a charge of sexual assault relating to two further women.

Brand was previously charged with five counts of sexual assault and rape earlier this year, and appeared in court in May, facing two counts of rape, two counts of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault in relation to four women. These are alleged to have occurred between 1999 and 2005.

Serious allegations of sexual abuse were first reported as part of an investigation by the Channel 4 Dispatches programme and the Sunday Times newspaper in 2023.

He has previously denied all allegations against him.

The two new charges allegedly took place in 2009 and relate to separate women, the CPS said.

Under previous charges, which Brand has pleaded not guilty to, he is accused of raping one woman in Bournemouth in 1999, and indecently assaulting another in the Westminster area by grabbing her arm and dragging her towards a male toilet in 2001.

A third charge alleges he sexually assaulted a woman by kissing and groping her in Westminster between 2004 and 2005, while the remaining counts relate to the alleged oral rape and sexual assault of an additional woman in 2004 in the Westminster area.

Det Ch Insp Tariq Farooqi from the Metropolitan Police has said the women who have made reports are receiving support from specially trained officers.

Brand is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on January 20 in relation to the two new charges.

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Following his initial not guilty plea in May, the case will now go to trial, which is set to begin June 16, 2026. At the time, BBC News reported that Brand did not engage or talk to media on his way into the court. Once inside, he stood in the glass dock and spoke to confirm his name, as well as “not guilty” to each count put to him.

He remains on conditional bail until the trial, with a pre-trial review scheduled for May 20, 2026.

The charges were brought against Brand on April 4, and the same day, he released a statement denying the allegations via Instagram in a video captioned “my response”.

“I was a fool before I lived in the light of the Lord. I was a drug addict, a sex addict and an imbecile, but what I never was, was a rapist,” he stated. “I’ve never engaged in non-consensual activity. I pray that you can see that by looking in my eyes”.

He concluded: “I’m now going to have the opportunity to defend these charges in court, and I’m incredibly grateful for that”.

The TV host and actor rose to fame in the 2000s with TV shows such as Big Brother’s Big Mouth, before moving into acting and appearing in comedies like Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008), Get Him To The Greek (2011) and Arthur (2011).

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