9 hours Ago By The Telegraph
Russell Brand has said his “promiscuous” behaviour was considered normal in a “diabolical culture” after being charged with rape and sexual assault. The comedian and actor insisted he was innocent of the allegations, but had nevertheless been “captured by a kind of darkness” in a society that celebrated the “relentless pursuit of pleasure”. Brand, 50, was charged on Friday with two counts of sexual assault, one count of indecent assault, one count of rape and one count of oral rape over a six-year period.
“In those giddy and hedonistic days, those ludicrous, dark days...
I must have been captured by a kind of darkness,” he said in a two-minute clip posted on his social media accounts. “But remember, for 22-and-a-half years, I’ve been drug and alcohol free, and I have a pretty good memory of accounts. “I also know that I am a person that very much respects the idea of consent.
Also I do respect the rights of the complainants to total anonymity and total privacy. “I have complete respect for the system of justice and will be fully cooperative, knowing in my heart I’m completely innocent of these allegations.” Brand, who starred in St Trinian’s and Forgetting Sarah Marshall, claimed that his “hedonism and promiscuity” had been considered normal in a culture that celebrated a “kind of casual godlessness” and “false gods”.
“I lived within jurisdiction of a broken and...
ultimately, I’m not going to say evil, but somewhat diabolical culture that I participated in ways that were normal in that culture, in all manner of activity that amounts to hedonism and promiscuity,” he said. Calling himself a “broken man and sinner”, Brand admitted that his former lifestyle had been “exploitative” because people slept with him because of his fame. Brand is accused of sexually abusing four women in London and the Bournemouth area between 1999 and 2005, and is expected to appear before Westminster Magistrates’ Court next month.
Detectives launched an 18-month investigation into the actor in 2023, after The Sunday Times and Channel 4 Dispatches published an investigation in which several woman accused him of sexual assault and emotional abuse. He denied the allegations..
