The Metropolitan Police have confirmed they are investigating a number of sexual assault allegations against Russell Brand.
Four women accused the comedian of sexual assault and rape in a joint investigation between The Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches.
Russell has denied all the allegations, and has not been charged with anything.
In a new statement, The Metropolitan Police said they’ve received a number of allegations of sexual offences against the 48-year-old in London, as well as a number of allegations of sexual offences committed elsewhere in the UK.
The police force are now investigating the allegations, which they said are non-recent.
They said: “Following an investigation by Channel 4’s Dispatches and The Sunday Times, the Met has received a number of allegations of sexual offences in London.:
“We have also received a number of allegations of sexual offences committed elsewhere in the country and will investigate these.”
There have been no arrests and enquiries continue.
Last Monday, the Met said it had received one report of alleged sexual assault from 2003 and encouraged other potential victims to come forward.
In a video shared ahead of the release of Channel 4’s Dispatches, Russell denied the allegations against him – saying that despite his “promiscuous” days, his relationships have always been “consensual”.
He said: “Now, this isn’t the usual type of video we make on this channel where we critique, attack and undermine the news in all its corruption because in this story, I am the news.”
“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 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, often 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.”
“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 coordinated 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.”
Russell continued: “I’m aware that you guys have been saying in the comments for a while, watch out, Russell. They’re coming from 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 being 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 standout 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 narrative that these two mainstream media outlets are trying to construct, apparently, in what seems to me to be a coordinated attack,” Russell continued.
“Now, I don’t wanna get into this any further because of the serious nature of the allegations, but I feel like I’m being attacked and plainly they’re working very closely together.”
“We are obviously going to look into this matter ’cause 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.”
