Moment Russell Brand jokes about raping a woman and ancient Greeks having sex with children in show with Richard Herring
RUSSELL Brand joked about raping a woman in a resurfaced video of a comedy show with Richard Herring.
The comedian, 48, also made jibes about ancient Greeks having sex with children on Herring’s Leicester Square Theatre podcast in 2013.
Five women have accused the star of rape and sexual abuse in an investigation for The Times, Sunday Times and Channel 4 Dispatches.
Brand has denied all allegations against him.
Footage, which is now believed to have been deleted from YouTube and Soundcloud, showed Brand speaking to Herring about “protecting his mundanity”.
He claimed he was a “mundane bloke from a single parent family” who had become a “show off”.
After a dramatic pause, the star broke the silence and said: “Oh I’ve raped someone once’ and ‘killed her after’.”
The crowd then roared with laughter.
He goes on to say “look at the women in this room. Even a bold estimate would be that I’ve slept with half of them. Currently”.
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”
One woman who came forward with allegations against Brand claimed he raped her against a wall at his home in Los Angeles.
Another woman, who said she worked with Brand, claimed he sexually assaulted her and then threatened to take legal action if she spoke out.
Another claimed he sexually assaulted her and was both emotionally and physically abusive.
A fourth victim, who was 16-years-old at the time, said she took a BBC chauffeur-driven car from school to Brand’s house.
She claimed Brand, then 30, was abusive during their three-month relationship.
Jordan Martin, who previously wrote a book on the alleged abuse she endured in February 2007, alleged 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.