Britain police have launched a sex assault investigation on Monday begun by news reports about comedian Russell Brand.
On Monday, London’s Metropolitan Police Force said that it had “received several allegations of sexual offenses” following a television documentary and newspaper probes. It said there had been no detentions.
Russell Brand refuses allegations of sexual assault made by four women in a Channel 4 television documentary and The Times and Sunday Times newspapers. Women who accused Brand, who have not been named, include one who said she was sexually assaulted at 16 age when she was in a relationship with him. Another woman says in 2012 Brand raped her in Los Angeles.
The police force did not name Brand in its statement but referred to the current articles and documentary. It said detectives were probing allegations of “non-recent” sexual crimes, both in London and elsewhere.
Detective Superintendent Andy Furphy of the Met’s Specialist Crime Command, who is leading the investigation, said, “We continue to encourage anyone who believes they may have been a victim of a sexual offense, no matter how long ago it was, to contact us.”
Brand was a prominent Britain star in the early 2000s. He hosted shows on radio and television, wrote memoirs charting his fights with drugs and alcohol, appeared in several Hollywood movies, and was shortly married to another prominent star Katy Perry between 2010 and 2012.
Brand has mostly disappeared from the media but has made up a considerable following online with videos combining fitness and conspiracy theories.
Last week YouTube said it would prevent Brand from earning money from the online streaming site, where he has 6.6 million subscribers, due to the “serious allegations” against him.
