I was groomed & assaulted by Russell Brand when I was 16… he made me tell people I was his ‘niece’ when I visited him
RUSSELL Brand’s 16-year-old accuser has claimed he made her tell people she was his “niece” when she visited his home.
The woman, who is using the pseudonym Alice, said she was coached on what to say during a three-month relationship with the star.
Alice came forward alongside four other women in a bombshell expose that saw Brand accused of rape, sexual assault and abuse.
The Metropolitan Police has urged any alleged victims to come forward after the shocking allegations were exposed in a joint investigation by The Times, Sunday Times and Channel 4 Dispatchers.
Brand has denied all accusations against him.
Alice today told BBC’s Woman’s Hour: “Russell groomed me and told me to save his number in my phone under a different name so nothing’s flagged when messages are coming up. He coached me on what to say to my parents.”
‘NOT A GOOD LOOK’
She claimed there were discussions around whether to call her his niece or goddaughter.
She added: “After a few days it was decided I couldn’t be seen publicly with him. He told me his management had told him not to be seen out and about.
“They said it wasn’t a good look for him and his career. He’d just made it to where he wants to be and it’s not a good idea.
“There was some kind of discussion – ‘maybe we can say she’s your goddaughter, we can’t say she’s a niece because people know you’re an only child’.”
A 30-year-old Brand picked Alice up while she was out shopping for clothes as a schoolgirl in 2006.
She said he didn’t know her age at the time, but didn’t react when she told him.
She added: “When we met initially and he took my number he hadn’t asked me my age so he didn’t know.
“He said to me he knew I was stalling on agreeing to go on a date with him. He said ‘why don’t you want to go out with me’.
“I said ‘because I’ve got something to tell you’. I said ‘I’m 16’. He replied saying ‘ok so we’re still on for dinner at 7.30?’ He was 30.”
During the relationship Brand allegedly forced Alice to perform oral sex until she choked when she was just 16.
She claimed she had to punch him in the stomach to make him stop.
Alice also claimed he referred to her as “the child” during a three-month-long abusive relationship.
And a BBC chauffeur-driven car once picked her up from school and took her to Brand’s house, she said.
Now Alice wants the government to consider a “tiered” consent system – making it legal only for 16-18-year-old to have sex with each other.
She added: “There was nothing my mum could do to protect me from being in that relationship. She had breakdowns about it. People say just call the police, but then what. I was legally allowed to be there. I think we should start to think about changing the law.”
She blasted Brand’s response to the allegations as “insulting”.
Alice added: “It is laughable that he would even imply that it’s a mainstream media conspiracy. He’s not outside of mainstream media.”
‘KNEW IT WAS COMING’
She says Brand’s YouTube channel allows him to talk about conspiracy theories and frame the allegations in those terms.
“I think he was building himself an audience for years that would then have great distrust of any publication that came forward with allegations. He knew it was coming for a long time.”
She says that she was not surprised that Brand denied all the allegations and said they were all consensual.
“What he didn’t deny was that he had a relationship with a 16-year-old,” she added.
Brand posted a video to YouTube to “absolutely refute” the claims before they were published last week.
He added that his relationships during a “promiscuous” time in his life were “always consensual”.
The BBC and Channel 4 have launched probes into the allegations.
It comes as…
- More women have reportedly come forward with accusations against Brand
- One alleged victim claimed the comedian sent a BBC car to pick her up
- A pal said wife Laura Gallacher is standing by Brand’s side amid allegations
- The BBC and Channel 4 launch urgent probes into the star
- An alleged victim opens up about the time she claimed Brand raped her
- A Rishi Sunak spokesman labelled the allegations “very serious and concerning”
Another woman claimed Brand raped her against a wall at his home in Los Angeles.
A third woman, who said she worked with Brand, claimed he sexually assaulted her and then threatened to take legal action if she spoke out.
Another woman said he sexually assaulted her and was both emotionally and physically abusive.
Jordan Martin, who previously wrote a book on the alleged abuse she endured in February 2007, said he was emotionally and sexually abusive.
During one incident he made her brush her teeth so hard her gums bled, she claimed.
The claims against Russell Brand
Woman 1: Claims Brand raped her in his Los Angeles Home
Woman 2: Claims Brand forced her to perform oral sex when she was just 16.
Woman 3: Claims Brand sexually assault her in LA and threatened legal action if she spoke out.
Woman 4: Claims Brand sexually assaulted her and was physically and emotionally abusive
Woman 5: Claims he subjected her to emotional abuse, sexual abuse and made her brush her teeth so hard her gums bled.
Cops have been urged to launch a probe into the allegations against Brand, which range from 2006 to 2013 – when he was at the height of his fame.
Caroline Nokes, Conservative chairwoman of the Commons women and equalities committee, said celebrity can “act as a shield” for abusive behaviour.
She told Today on BBC Radio 4: “I would very much hope that complaints will be made both to the Metropolitan Police and indeed in the States, because this merits and needs a criminal investigation, because for too long we have seen men — and the perpetrators of these sorts of crimes are almost invariably men — not being held to account for their behaviours and their actions.”
A spokesman for Rishi Sunak today called the allegations “very serious and concerning”.
They added: “People should feel able to raise concerns when they have them and know they will be taken seriously. There should never be any space for harassment regardless of where it is found.
“I think the BBC and Channel 4 have said they will investigate and that’s the right step. I won’t pre-judge that but they should present results of the findings transparently.”
It comes as Brand’s former agent John Noel told the BBC: “I never had any complaints about him.”
Brand’s father Ron, 80, has blasted the allegations as he defended his son.
He posted on Facebook: “Is this seriously the most important thing happening in the world?”
Ahead of The Times publishing its expose, Brand denied all the allegations against him, slamming them as “aggressive attacks”.
He performed a stand-up show in Wembley just hours after the allegations emerged.
Russell Brand's video transcript 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 have received two extremely disturbing letters – well 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 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 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 have 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?
Particularly when we have 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.
I’m aware that you guys have been saying in the comments for a while ‘Watch out Russell, they are coming for you, you are 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 is 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 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 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.