London\u2019s Metropolitan Police said it has launched an investigation into allegations of \u201cnon-recent\u201d sexual offenses in the United Kingdom, after a joint investigation by British media outlets revealed the comedian Russell Brand was accused of rape and sexual assault. <\/p>\n
\u201cFollowing an investigation by Channel 4\u2019s Dispatches and The Sunday Times, the Met has received a number of allegations of sexual offences in London,\u201d the force said in a statement Monday. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have also received a number of allegations of sexual offences committed elsewhere in the country and will investigate these. The offences are all non-recent,\u201d it added. <\/p>\n
Brand has publicly denied the allegations and accused the UK government of trying to censor him. <\/p>\n
Detectives from the Met\u2019s Central Specialist Crime Command, led by Detective Superintendent Andy Furphy, will carry out the investigation, according to the Met\u2019s statement. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe continue to encourage anyone who believes they may have been a victim of a sexual offence, no matter how long ago it was, to contact us,\u201d it said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe understand it can feel like a difficult step to take and I want to reassure that we have a team of specialist officers available to advise and support.\u201d <\/p>\n
Brand became famous as a comedian and actor, but in recent years has built a YouTube channel which has been accused of promoting conspiracy theories including Covid denialism. <\/p>\n
Since the allegations broke YouTube has demonetized Brand\u2019s channel and his live tour has been postponed. <\/p>\n
The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4\u2019s Dispatches published an investigation in which four women alleged Brand of sexually assaulting them in separate instances between 2006 and 2013. One of the women said she was 16 and Brand was 31 at the time of the alleged assault in London. <\/p>\n
At least two of the alleged assaults took place in Los Angeles. One woman was treated at a rape treatment center the same day as the alleged assault, according to the report. <\/p>\n
Police were contacted by the center, the story stated, but the woman chose not to file a report because she \u201cdidn\u2019t think my words would mean anything up against his,\u201d according to notes from the rape center the woman shared with The Times. <\/p>\n
Downing Street described the allegations made in the documentary as \u201cvery serious and concerning.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Met Police has asked anyone who believes they have been a victim of sexual assault to come forward to speak to officers,\u201d Prime Minister Rishi Sunak\u2019s official spokesman said in a statement after the documentary aired. <\/p>\n
The Met announced last week that they were investigating an allegation of sexual assault in 2003. <\/p>\n
Without naming Brand, a Met spokesperson said: \u201cWe are aware of reporting by The Sunday Times and Channel 4\u2019s Dispatches about allegations of sexual offenses. <\/p>\n
\u201cOn Sunday, 17 September, the Met received a report of a sexual assault which was alleged to have taken place in Soho in central London in 2003. Officers are in contact with the woman and will be providing her with support.\u201d <\/p>\n\n
London\u2019s Metropolitan Police said it has launched an investigation into allegations of \u201cnon-recent\u201d sexual offenses in the United Kingdom, after a joint investigation by British media outlets revealed the comedian Russell Brand was accused of rape and sexual assault. \u201cFollowing an investigation by Channel 4\u2019s Dispatches and The Sunday Times, the Met has received a <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":9171,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9170","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}