Police Investigating Two More Rape Complaints Against Brand
Two more women have made rape allegations against Russell Brand, and police are investigating them. The news follows his conviction, and officers expect that others may now come forward.
Police expect more women to come forward
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley confirmed the two cases on BBC Breakfast on Friday. "I clearly wouldn't be surprised if many more came forward," he said.
The detective who led the inquiry, Det Supt Andy Furphy, made a similar point. He thinks more women may well step forward, and that the trial could give them confidence to do so.
A case that began with media reports
The story broke in September 2023, when The Times, Sunday Times and Channel 4's Dispatches jointly published accounts of four women who accused Brand of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse. He strongly denied them. Police began looking at other reports against him soon afterwards.
Furphy said officers had assumed people might want to speak up, and they did. Reports reached forces across the country. The Met formed a dedicated team under the name Operation Actinolite, and it has taken more than 340 witness statements. They came from people including Brand's former employers, ex-colleagues and associates.
Building a case without physical evidence
All the allegations were non-recent, and the earliest was 27 years old. Police therefore had neither CCTV nor forensic evidence. Furphy said that did not make the cases unsolvable, and that officers looked at where each woman was at the time and whether she told anyone afterwards.
Brand's profile and the media scrutiny around him were a further difficulty. One officer was given the job of going through his books, stand-up shows, DVDs and podcasts.
From first interview to verdict
Brand was first interviewed under caution two months into the investigation, and twice more in the following months. Each time he gave a prepared statement. In it he said the complainants were unfamiliar to him, he remembered no such incidents, and anything sexual would have been consensual. He declined to answer officers' questions.
He was charged in early April 2025, and further charges followed in July 2025 after a fourth interview. He denied all of them. His trial at Southwark Crown Court began on 14 October 2026.
The jury of eight men and four women convicted him of one count of rape and three of sexual assault. He was cleared on two rape counts and one count of attempted indecent assault.
Furphy praised the women who gave evidence. "They are courageous, determined women and our focus has always been on them, not Russell Brand," he said.
Source: BBC News