British actor and comedian Russell Brand has been granted bail after appearing at a London court charged with rape and sexual assault.
Brand spoke only to confirm his name, date of birth, address and that he understood his bail conditions during a short hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
The 49-year-old, wearing an open shirt and jeans, listened intently to the details of the charges as he sat in the dock.
London police charged Brand on April 4th with rape, oral rape, indecent assault and two counts of sexual assault involving the four women between 1999-2005.
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The charges came following a joint investigation by the Sunday Times, the Times and Channel 4 Dispatches in September 2023 in which several women accused him of rape, sexual assaults and emotional abuse.
Brand, once one of Britain’s most high-profile broadcasters and former husband of US pop singer Katy Perry, has consistently denied having non-consensual sex since allegations about him were first aired two years ago.
After the charges were announced, Brand said that in his younger days, before getting married and having children, he had been a fool and a sex addict but “what I never was, was a rapist”.
“I have never engaged in non-consensual activity,” he said in a video statement. “I’m now going to have the opportunity to defend these charges in court and I’m incredibly grateful for that.”
In the 2000s, Brand was a regular on British screens, known for his flamboyant style and appearance. He worked for the BBC and starred in a number of films including Get Him to the Greek before marrying Perry in 2010. They divorced 14 months later.
By the early 2020s he had faded from mainstream culture, appearing primarily on his internet channel where he airs his views on US politics and free speech.
Brand, who said last year he had become a Christian, rejected those accusations.
“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,” he said.
Brand, of Hambleden, Buckinghamshire, will appear at the Old Bailey on May 30th.– Reuters
