🔺 EXCLUSIVE: Russell Brand has been accused of rape and sexual assaults by women who have broken their silence on alleged attacks between 2006 and 2013
This is a joint investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times and @C4Dispatches
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@RosamundUrwin
@char_wace
@pmorganbentley
One woman alleges that Russell Brand raped her against a wall in his Los Angeles home. She was treated at a rape crisis centre on the same day, according to medical records
Text messages show that in the hours after leaving his house, the woman told Brand that she had been scared by him and felt taken advantage of, adding: ”When a girl say[s] NO it means no.”
Brand replied, saying he was “very sorry”
Another woman alleges that Brand assaulted her when he was 31 and she was 16 and still at school.
She said he referred to her as “the child” during an emotionally abusive and controlling relationship that lasted for about three months
She also said that Russell Brand once forced his penis down her throat, making her choke. She tried to push him off and said she had to punch him in the stomach to make him stop
Several others have also shared a range of allegations about Brand’s behaviour, including a woman who said that he sexually assaulted her while she worked with him in Los Angeles, and that he then threatened to take legal action if she told anyone else about her allegation
Most of the women, who do not know each other, have chosen to remain anonymous. Brand denies the allegations
Over the past few years, reporters have interviewed hundreds of sources who knew or worked with Brand: ex-girlfriends and their friends and family, comedians and other celebrities, and senior staff at the BBC, Channel 4 and other media organisations
#C4Dispatches
Along with these interviews we have seen private emails and text messages, submitted FoI requests, viewed medical and therapists’ notes, scrutinised Brand’s books and interviews, and watched and listened to hundreds of hours of his shows to corroborate allegations
The above is just a fraction of what is being reported, you should read the article in full here: thetimes.co.uk/article/russel…
🎙️Listen to a special edition of #StoriesOfOurTimes
@RosamundUrwin & @char_wace talk to @manveenrana about their investigation into Russell Brand
Slovakia’s populist prime minister, Robert Fico, has been injured in a shooting and taken to hospital, according to local reports ⬇️ thetimes.co.uk/article/slovak…
🔺 UPDATE: Slovakia’s populist prime minister, Robert Fico, is in a life-threatening condition after being shot in the street ⬇️
🔺 EXCLUSIVE: The police investigation into Angela Rayner is examining multiple allegations and is not merely limited to potential electoral law offences ⬇️ thetimes.co.uk/article/angela…
At least a dozen officers at Greater Manchester police are investigating the Labour deputy leader over where she lived in the 2010s and the sale of her former council house in Stockport
They are examining tax matters and other issues on top of the question of whether Rayner gave false information for the electoral register when she lived between two former council houses in Stockport in the 2010s
🔺 EXCLUSIVE: top universities recruit foreign students on low grades
Young Britons need straight As to get into Russell Group institutes. But their international classmates may have bought their way in through secret routes thetimes.co.uk/article/cash-f…
Foreign students can buy their way on to highly competitive degree courses with as little as a handful of C grades at GCSE. The courses require British students to have A or A* grades at A-level
Representatives of the elite Russell Group universities were secretly filmed discussing the “back door” routes used to recruit overseas students, who pay much higher fees than their UK counterparts
Ukrainians are resorting to extreme lengths to flee the war as Zelensky wants to lower that age of conscription to 25 as casualties mount in the war with Russia ⬇️ thetimes.co.uk/article/ukrain…
More than 17,100 Ukrainians have been detained by the DPSU trying to leave the country illegally since the Russian invasion thetimes.co.uk/article/ukrain…
Those numbers look set to climb as a contentious new bill seeks to mobilise another 500,000 men for military service
🔷 Could the China outbreak be the start of a new pandemic?
The simple answer is, almost certainly not — but we don’t know for sure
This is how the first days of a new pandemic would look, and the World Health Organisation has already made a request to China for more information on “clusters of pneumonia in children”
In the next few days, 29 motorists will receive warning letters from police reprimanding them for exceeding the speed limit on the cramped streets of a Cornish village
Despite being accused of breaking the law — one of the cars was logged doing 36mph in a 20mph limit — these drivers will not be fined, will receive no points on their licences, and will not be asked to attend a driver awareness course