Comedian Russell Brand is charged with rape and assault in U.K.

Actor and political pundit Russell Brand is facing multiple charges of rape and sexual assault, London’s Metropolitan Police announced on Friday, listing charges that span more than six years.

The criminal charges were announced one and a half years after Brand was accused of sexual misconduct by four women in the fall of 2023.

Brand denied those allegations after they emerged, saying that while he had been sexually promiscuous, all of the interactions “were absolutely always consensual.”

But the women’s accounts sparked a police inquiry.

“The women who have made reports continue to receive support from specially trained officers,” Detective Superintendent Andy Furphy said in a statement as the charges were revealed.

Brand is set to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday, May 2.

Brand is charged with one count of rape, one count of indecent assault, one count of oral rape and two counts of sexual assault. The police allegations range from a 1999 rape in the Bournemouth area to a woman who was sexually assaulted in the Westminster area of London between 2004 and 2005.