Russell Brand accused of 'rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse'

ok.co.uk:

Russell Brand has been accused of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse during the height of his fame in an investigation by The Times ahead of a special episode of Channel 4's Dispatches, which will air tonight.The Times claims that four women have come forward with the allegations after being approached by reporters.

Russell, 48, strongly denied the alleged incidents – which took place between 2006 and 2013 – in a preemptive YouTube video, which he posted on Friday night.

In the video, he said: "I’ve 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. "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. "As I’ve written about extensively in my books, I was very very promiscuous.

During that time of promiscuity the relationships I had were absolutely always consensual." He continued to address his six million YouTube subscribers: "I was always transparent about that then, almost too transparent, and I’m being transparent about it now, as well. "And to see the transparency metastasized into something criminal, that I absolutely deny, makes me think, 'Is there another agenda at play?'" In the wake of the #MeToo movement, the actor and comedian previously said he had no regrets about his previous sexual behaviour, claiming to have had intimate relationships with hundreds of women in the past.