LONDON, Dec 23 (Reuters) – British police said on Tuesday that comedian and actor Russell Brand had been charged with a new count of rape and another of sexual assault.
The new charges – authorised by the Crown Prosecution Service – related to two women and followed five charges made in April involving four other women: two counts of rape, one of indecent assault and two of sexual assault, going back more than two decades.
Brand, 50, will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on January 20 in relation to the new charges. A trial on the earlier charges is scheduled to begin at Southwark Crown Court on June 16.
Reuters has attempted to reach Brand for comment.
Brand pleaded not guilty in May to the five original charges. Once a well-known broadcaster in Britain and a former husband of U.S. pop singer Katy Perry, he has denied having non-consensual sex.
After the original charges were announced, he said he had been a fool and a sex addict in his younger days but “what I never was, was a rapist”.
The original investigation began in September 2023 after allegations were reported by Channel 4 TV’s “Dispatches” show and The Sunday Times newspaper.
(Reporting by Sam TabahritiEditing by William Schomberg, Alexandra Hudson)
