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Russell Brand has been accused of rape, sexual assault and physical and emotional abuse by five women. The accusations follow an ‘investigation’ by The Sunday Times, The Times and U.K. current affairs show on Channel 4, Dispatches.

The actor, comedian, and anti-establishment ‘shaman’ has obviously denied the allegations after an article published by The Times on Saturday, and an episode of Dispatches on Saturday evening laid open the claims against him.

The incidents allegedly occurred between 2006 and 2013 when Brand, 48, was a presenter for BBC Radio 2 and Channel 4 and a Hollywood film actor. Brand released a video on social media on Friday, saying that he “absolutely refutes” the claims and describing them as “extremely egregious and aggressive attacks”.

According to the article, the first incident allegedly occurred in 2006 when Brand was 30 years old and worked as the host of Channel 4’s Big Brother’s Big Mouth and as a BBC radio presenter. The female accuser, who was 16 at the time, alleged that Brand immediately asked her on their first date to confirm her age, telling her, “I don’t give a f— if you’re 12… I need to know where I stand legally”.

The damning article describes several instances where Brand forced himself on women, the details of which we won’t get into here as it can be very triggering for some, but suffice to say, if true, this guy makes Harvey Weinstein seem like a ‘nice guy’.

It’s also not just a case of ‘he said she said’, as one of his accusers provided evidence processed at the Rape Treatment Center (RTC) at UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center.

The revelations follow a similar accusation by Brand’s ex, Jordan Martin, who in her 2014 book, kNot: Entanglement with a Celebrity accused him of sexually assaulting her and physically and emotionally abusing her during the six months they dated.

Britian’s Channel 4 claims that “five women, four of whom asked to remain anonymous, agreed to share their stories of serious sexual allegations in the programme”.

Brand refuted the allegations (kind of) in a video he posted on Friday, saying that, “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’ve received two extremely disturbing letters, listing a litany of extremely egregious and aggressive attacks,” he began in the video. “But amidst this litany of astonishing, rather baroque attacks, are some very serious allegations that I absolutely refute”.

According to Brand, it’s all a ‘coordinated attack’ via ‘mainstream media’. He hasn’t mentioned the involvement of the ‘military-industrial complex’ yet, but we’re sure that’ll come soon enough.

Brand is the latest celeb to be caught under the #metoo steamroller and the next few months will be a tabloid fest as the accusations are discussed and dissected by the media. Until then, watch him squirm:

 

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[source:people]