Russell Brand’s father, Ron Brand, has spoken out in defence of his son after the comedian was accused of rape and sexual assault.
This weekend, a joint investigation conducted by The Times, the Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches unveiled allegations made by four women against Brand, 48.
The comic denied he had conducted any criminal activity in a video posted on social media ahead of the Channel 4 documentary being released and The Times article being published, in which he didn’t specify what the allegations were.
The newspaper has since claimed that more women have reportedly come forward to make accusations against Brand.
In posts obtained by The Daily Mail and shared on what appears to be Ron Brand’s Facebook page, he defended his son, writing: ‘With many struggling to pay bills. The unproven accusations of 15 years ago take lead on BBC News?’
In another post, he stated: ‘Is this seriously the most important thing happening in this world? Immigrants? Cost of living? 10s of thousands killed in Ukraine? Who is prioritising at BBC News. Who is really driving this vendetta?’
Then in another message that appeared to have been shared on his Facebook page on Monday, he added: ‘The Russell Brand vendetta. Like a man who owns an orchard being accused of stealing an apple?’
In the piece published by The Times following the joint investigation, one woman claimed that Brand assaulted her when she was 16 when she was still in school, while he was 31 years old.
Another alleged that he raped her against a wall at his home in Los Angeles, with the comedian reportedly telling her ‘sorry’ over text when she stressed to him in a message: ‘When a girl say[s] NO it means no.’
Following the allegations made against Brand, the Metropolitan Police released a statement, which read: ‘We are aware of media reporting of a series of allegations of sexual assault.
‘At this time, we have not received any reports in relation to this.
‘If anyone believes they have been the victim of a sexual assault, no matter how long ago it happened, we would encourage them to contact police.
‘We spoke with the Sunday Times on Saturday, September 16. We will be making further approaches to the Sunday Times and Channel 4 to ensure that any victims of crime who they have spoken with are aware of how they may report any criminal allegations to police.’
In light of the investigation, a BBC spokesperson released a statement that read: ‘The documentary and associated reports contained serious allegations, spanning a number of years.
‘Russell Brand worked on BBC radio programmes between 2006 and 2008 and we are urgently looking into the issues raised.’
Channel 4 also released a statement, which read: ‘We have asked the production company who produced the programmes for Channel 4 to investigate these allegations and report their findings properly and satisfactorily to us.
‘Channel 4 is also conducting its own internal investigation, and we would encourage anyone who is aware of such behaviour to contact us directly.
‘We will be writing to all our current suppliers reminding them of their responsibilities under our Code of Conduct, as we are committed to ensuring our industry has safe, inclusive and professional working environments.’
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In the video posted on social media by Brand on Friday, he said that he ‘absolutely refutes’ what he described as ‘very serious criminal allegations’ that had been made against him.
While he didn’t go into detail on what the allegations were, he said that he had received letters from a ‘mainstream media TV company’ and a newspaper, which he said included ‘a litany of extremely egregious and aggressive attacks’.
‘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,’ he said.
‘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 am being transparent about it now as well.
‘To see that transparency metastasised into something criminal, that I absolutely deny, makes me question is there another agenda at play.’
Brand also outlined what he felt was a ‘coordinated attack’ against him, saying that he would be looking into the ‘very, very serious’ accusations.
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