BBC says it is “urgently looking into the issues raised” by the allegations of sexual assault against Russell Brand.
In an exclusive report by The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches, Brand was accused of rape and sexual assault against four women from 2006 to 2013.
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According to the report, Brand was alleged of raping one woman in his Los Angeles home, while the other three women accused him of sexual assault.
One of the women alleged she was only 16 years old and still at school when Brand assaulted her during a three-month relationship.
The report did not say if the women had made any reports to the police.
The comedian and actor denied all allegations and said his relationships were consensual.
“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,” Brand said in a video statement published to his social media.
“Now during that time of promiscuity, the relationships, I had were absolutely, always consensual.”
A BBC spokesperson said in a statement, “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.”
In addition to BBC’s investigation, Channel 4 said it had “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 asking “anyone who is aware of such behaviour to contact us directly” as it conducts its own investigation.