Russell Brand Pleads Not Guilty to Additional Rape and Sexual Assault Charges

Disgraced comedian and actor Russell Brand has pleaded not guilty to two additional charges of rape and sexual assault.

The 50-year-old appeared at Southwark Crown Court in London on Tuesday to enter his plea. The new charges relate to two alleged incidents involving two different women in London in 2009.

Last May, Brand pleaded not guilty to five other charges. Those allegations include a 1999 rape in the Bournemouth area; a 2001 indecent assault in Westminster; the alleged oral rape and sexual assault of a woman in Westminster in 2004; and the sexual assault of another woman in Westminster between 2004 and 2005. A trial is scheduled to begin on June 3.

A hearing will take place in March to decide whether the new charges should be combined with the existing case.

In total, Brand faces criminal allegations from six women. He was photographed arriving at and leaving court wearing a leopard print shirt and fedora hat.

Brand has strongly denied all allegations. In a video shared on social media last year, he said he has “never engaged in nonconsensual activity.”

Police began investigating in September 2023 after receiving several complaints, following reporting by Channel 4’s “Dispatches” and The Sunday Times. One woman told “Dispatches” that she was 16 when she entered a three-month relationship with Brand, who was 31 at the time, and described him as emotionally abusive and controlling. Another woman alleged that Brand raped her at his Los Angeles home in 2012.

The alleged incidents date from 1999 to 2013, when Brand was a prominent television and film personality. The case is ongoing.