[Source: CNN Entertainment]

UK police have charged British comedian and actor Russell Brand with rape and other sexual offenses against four women.

Brand, who is 50, has been charged with one count of rape, one count of indecent assault, one count of oral rape and two counts of sexual assault, London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement Friday.

The Met Police added that Brand will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London early next month. It did not specify Brand’s current whereabouts but described him as living in southern England. A Met spokesperson told CNN a written charge and requisition has been issued.

The comedian, who more recently has repositioned himself as a social commentator, has previously denied the allegations.

Police began investigating Brand in September 2023 after receiving allegations following a joint investigation led by three British media outlets – The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4’s “Dispatches.”

According to the Met Police, it is alleged that one woman was raped in 1999 in Bournemouth, southern England; one woman was indecently assaulted in London’s Westminster area in 2001; a woman was orally raped and sexually assaulted in 2004 also in the Westminster area of London; and a woman was sexually assaulted between 2004-2005 in London’s Westminster area.

“We have today authorised the Metropolitan Police to charge Russell Brand with a number of sexual offences,” Jaswant Narwal of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said, according to a CPS press release Friday.

“We carefully reviewed the evidence after a police investigation into allegations made following the broadcast of a Channel 4 documentary in September 2023. We have concluded that Russell Brand should be charged with offences including rape, sexual assault and indecent assault.”

Brand took to X on Friday to respond to the news, echoing his denial of the allegations.

“When I was young and single before I had my wife and family… I was a fool, man, I was a fool before I lived in the light of the Lord,” he said in a video message.

“I was a drug addict, a sex addict and an imbecile, but what I never was, was a rapist. I’ve never engaged in non-consensual activity, and I pray that you can see that by looking in my eyes,” he added, thanking people for sending messages of support.

Brand has appeared in numerous Hollywood films and hosted radio and TV shows in the UK. He was also married to US pop star Katy Perry between 2010-2012.

More recently he has gained a large following online discussing wellness – after publicly talking about his battles with drugs and alcohol – and conspiracy theories, particularly on YouTube where he has over 6 million subscribers.

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