25 September 2023 , 15:50
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The Metropolitan Police has said it has received “a number of allegations of sexual assault in London” and elsewhere following news reports about comedian Russell Brand.
The full statement from the police force reads: "Detectives have launched an investigation into allegations of sexual offences.
"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. The offences are all non-recent. Officers will be offering specialist support to all of the women who have made allegations. The investigation is being carried out by detectives in the Met’s Central Specialist Crime Command, led by Detective Superintendent Andy Furphy.
Russell Brand strongly denies the allegations made against him in a Channel 4 documentary (Getty Images)Supt Furphy said: “We continue to encourage anyone who believes they may have been a victim of a sexual offence, no matter how long ago it was, to contact us. We understand it can feel like a difficult step to take and I want to reassure that we have a team of specialist officers available to advise and support.
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"There have been no arrests and enquiries continue. Anyone who wants to report an offence to the police should contact us on 101. Always dial 999 in an emergency."
It comes as allegations were made about comedian Russell Brand, 48, during Channel 4's explosive Dispatches documentary, which came from a joint investigation with The Times and Sunday Times. He was accused of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse - with the incidents allegedly taking place between 2006 and 2013.
Three women broke their silence after the allegations aired, with one alleged victim making a report to the Metropolitan Police, and a further person recently spoke out with claims against the comedian, claiming she felt "vulnerable and intimidated".
Before the programme aired on September 19, he took to YouTube to release a statement claiming there were "serious allegations" made against him, which he "absolutely refutes" and strongly denies. He described the allegations as a "coordinated attack" against him.
Addressing his millions of followers ahead of the broadcast, Brand 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 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.
"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?"
If you've been the victim of sexual assault, you can access help and resources via www.rapecrisis.org.uk or calling the national telephone helpline on 0808 802 9999*