Russell Brand accused of rape and emotional abuse

Comedian and actor Russell Brand is being accused of rape, sexual assault and criminal abuse crimes upon a number of women — the details of which were released via a joint investigation by the Sunday Times, the Times and Channel 4 Dispatches.

According to the investigation, “one of the women said Brand entered into a relationship with her while he was 31 and she still a 16-year-old schoolgirl,” a second woman “alleged [that] Brand raped her in his Los Angeles home,” and a third woman “said Brand sexually assaulted her while she worked with him in Los Angeles, and that he threatened to take legal action if she told anyone else about her allegation.”

In a video statement release on Friday, Brand denied the allegations, saying, “I’ve received two extremely disturbing letters, or 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. 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,” he said. “And as I’ve 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.” Watch his full statement below: