Six more women accuse Russell Brand after rape sentence

By Daniel Okafor

Russell Brand received a prison sentence of more than 10 years on Monday. Now six more women have accused him of sexual misconduct and predatory behaviour, according to an investigation by the Times and the Sunday Times.

The comedian, 51, was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court in London after a jury convicted him of raping a 21-year-old fan and sexually assaulting three women in separate incidents between 2004 and 2009. He was cleared of two further charges of rape and one of attempted indecent assault.

The new allegations could not be published until the criminal case ended. That restraint was legal, not editorial — reporting earlier risked prejudicing proceedings. The Times said it took "extensive steps" to corroborate the claims and paid none of its sources.

What do the new allegations say?

The Times and Sunday Times report six accounts spanning 2005 to 2015. The most serious: Brand is accused of having sex with a woman without her consent, then apologising afterwards.

The accusers' accounts, as reported:

• A woman who had an on-off relationship with Brand in the late 2000s, after a professional meeting at his London home, says she asked him to stop during sex because he was not wearing a condom.
• A woman who met him in 2007, aged 19, while queueing to see him with a friend, says he continued despite her telling him "it's painful".
• A fan, then in her late 20s, who met Brand after his 2013 performance at The Chapel in San Francisco, claims he "manhandled" her and forced his hand down her trousers.
• A woman, then in her mid-twenties, says Brand approached her at a 2005 music festival and told her: "Please I just need to have sex with you, I will pay you."
• A winner of a BBC 6 Music competition, invited onto his show in 2006 when she was in her late 20s, claims he told her to lick a toilet seat at his house and "got angry" when she refused.
• A staff member at a London venue Brand visited regularly in 2015, who says a member of his staff told her "Russell wants you" and "He's in the disabled toilets", where she alleges Brand grabbed her.

The first woman gave the Times a detailed account. "He was very close, on top of me, and sort of pushing — but I knew he didn't have a condom on and I said: 'No, stop,' and I started to sort of try to move," she said. "And … that wasn't happening."

She said she decided at that moment that "I'm not going to fight" because "who knows what he could do". Brand later apologised in person and by text message, she said. "I justified it in my head by saying to myself: at least he admitted it."

The second woman's account runs to three blunt sentences. "And then it gets worse and it's really painful," she told the Times. "And I say 'stop' and he doesn't stop." She claims Brand said afterwards: "Tonight was consensual. Nobody did anything they didn't want to do."

The San Francisco accuser said: "I didn't resist. I just sort of let it happen." The BBC competition winner said Brand "seemed pissed off that I wouldn't let him humiliate me".

How did Brand respond?

He didn't, in substance. The newspapers approached Brand through his legal representatives after Monday's conviction. His lawyer reportedly said he would consider "injunctive relief" (a court order blocking publication) but sent no response to the allegations, despite additional time and an agreed deadline passing.

Brand has previously denied wrongdoing and claimed all his relationships were consensual. His lawyer was contacted again for comment on the new report.

What happens next?

The prime minister, Andy Burnham, has weighed in. He said the media industry needs to "look at itself" and "step forward" to protect women and girls. His remarks followed not only Brand's conviction but also allegations of sexual misconduct against the comedian David Walliams, made in an investigation by the Guardian and ITV News. Walliams has denied those allegations.

Burnham's intervention points at the uncomfortable question the Brand case keeps raising: how a public figure accumulated this many accusers across this many years while his career carried on. Six women, one decade, one industry — and a trial that only four complainants reached. The remaining accounts now sit with the public, and with an industry the prime minister says owes women an answer.

Whether further legal action follows the Times report remains to be seen. What is certain is the reporting logjam has cleared: with the criminal case closed, accounts that waited years for a verdict can now be published — and read.