But comic insists all his sexual encounters have been consensual ahead of Dispatches and Sunday Times expose

Russell Brand has been accused of rape, sexual assaults and emotional abuse at the height of his fame,

The comic has vehemently denied any wrongdoing, admitting he was promiscuous in the past but that every sexual encounter was consensual.

But a report published online by The Sunday Times says four women - one who was aged 16 at the time -  alleged sexual assaults between 2006 and 2013 while he was a presenter for BBC Radio 2 and Channel 4 and then an actor in Hollywood.

Most of the women have chosen to remain anonymous as they made further accusations of  sexual harassment and bullying.

Their allegations will also be aired in a 90-minute Dispatches special airing on Channel 4 tonight.

EXCLUSIVE: Russell Brand denies accusations of rape, sexual assault and controlling and emotionally abusive behaviour.

Five women share their stories with @C4Dispatches in a joint investigation with @thetimes.

Watch Russell Brand: In Plain Sight tonight at 9pm on @Channel4 pic.twitter.com/gmVMCAsh2B

— Channel 4 Dispatches (@C4Dispatches) September 16, 2023

Last night, Brand tried to get ahead of the story by issuing a statement to his 11million followers on X, formerly known as Twitter.

As rumours swirled that an expose was about drop, the comic admitted he was at the centre of ‘very serious allegations’ about his sexual conduct – but said  he ‘refutes’ them all.

He claimed the ‘mainstream media’ had conspired to  launch an attack on him because they don’t like him criticising their ‘narratives’ and telling his followers there is ‘another agenda at play’.

In a clip has been viewed more than 20million times, he says he has been open about his promiscuity at the height of his fame – but insists that all the encounters were consensual.

The woman who was 16 at the time of her first encounter with Brand, who was 30 at the time, called out for the entertainment industry to change, saying it celebrated the comedian's lothario ways.

She told the Sunday Times: 'I think he was very skilful in the start of making his identity be, "I’m the womaniser. I’m a sex addict. I’m inappropriate but it’s all just a joke, it’s funny." It’s a smokescreen for a lot more of his dark behaviour."

Channel 4 Dispatches programme is due to air at 9pm and be repeated  on Sunday at 10.50pm.

A spokesman for the broadcaster said they were 'appalled to learn of these deeply troubling allegations including behaviour alleged to have taken place on programmes made for Channel 4 between 2004 and 2007.'

Brand worked on Big Brother’s Big Mouth at the time, but Channel 4 said no complaints were logged at the time. Producers also said there were no records of issues about Brand being raised formally.

The broadcaster added: 'We are determined to understand the full nature of what went on. We have carried out extensive document searches and have found no evidence to suggest the alleged incidents were brought to the attention of Channel 4. 

'We will continue to review this in light of any further information we receive, including the accounts of those affected individuals.'

Without knowing the details of the allegations, Andrew Tate and Elon Musk threw their  support behind Brand, The owner of social media platform X responded to Brand's allegations of a media conspiracy against him by saying: 'Of course. They don’t like competition.'

Brand also appears to have been dropped by his agent, Tavistock Wood. A page about the comedian on their website that was live at the start of June, according to the Internet Archive, is no longer up.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Brand became an outspoken denier of the medical consensus regarding the virus and the vaccine, and had a video removed from YouTube for breaking its policies.

The 48-year-old has been open about his former drug use, but he has been clean since 2002. In 2005, he received treatment for sex addiction at a clinic in the US.

He married Laura Gallacher in 2017, and they have two daughters, six and five, with a third child on the way.

This is happening pic.twitter.com/N8zIKLbJN2

— Russell Brand (@rustyrockets) September 15, 2023

Russell Brand’s statement in full

'Hello there you awakening wonders.

‘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 stuffs like, my 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 are some very serious allegations that I absolutely refute.

‘These allegations pertained 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 that 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 metastasised 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 languag.

‘I'm aware that you guys have been saying in the comments for a while, "watch out, Russell, they're coming for 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 been clear to me or at least it feels to me like there's a serious and concerted agenda to control these kinds of spaces and these kinds of voices, and I'm in my voice along with your voice. 

‘I don't mind them using my books and my stand-up 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 narratives that these two mainstream media outlets are trying to construct, apparently, in what seems to me to be a coordinated attack. 

‘Now, I don't want to get into this any further because of the serious nature of the allegations, but I feel like I'm being attacked and plainly they are working very closely together. We are obviously going to look into this matter because 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 

Published: 15 Sep 2023