A woman who was 16 when she began a relationship with Russell Brand has alleged that he forced her against the headboard of a bed and orally raped her. Mia Latter, now 27, waived her right to lifelong anonymity to make the allegation, having previously been known as Alice in a Channel 4 documentary and as Emily in earlier interviews.
What Mia Latter Alleges
Latter, who was 16 at the time and says Brand was then 30, told The Sunday Times: "He ended up forcing me against the headboard [of the bed], and I couldn't move, and he orally raped me – and I was choking and crying. I was trying to push him off, so he knew that I didn't want him to be doing that, and so then I ended up having to hit him in the stomach to get him off. I've never hit anyone [before] and … he said: 'I just wanted to see your mascara run.'"
She said their relationship lasted three months. In a previous interview she alleged that Brand had given her the nickname "The Child" and claimed she was transported in BBC-supplied vehicles from school to Brand's home.
Claims About BBC Cars
Appearing on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, Latter was asked by broadcaster Emma Barnett about the allegation that a BBC car was sent to collect her, believed to be on a number of occasions, to go and see Brand.
Latter said Brand had two car accounts, naming Addison Lee and saying she did not know whether he also had the BBC account used for them. She said the BBC would arrange cars for him and that she had previously seen him picked up from his house by BBC cars, adding that it was a chauffeur-driven car rather than an ordinary cab.
She described one occasion when a friend was taking Brand to do his radio show and he told her to get in the car and go wherever she needed to, so she took the BBC car. On another occasion, she said, it picked her up from school. Asked whether she believed it was a BBC car that collected her from school to take her to meet Brand, she replied: "It was back to his house."
Brand's Sentence
In 2023, as part of a joint investigation by The Sunday Times and Channel 4's Dispatches, Brand faced accusations of sexual misconduct involving multiple women. On Monday he was sentenced to 10 and a half years behind bars after being found guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault.
Call for a Staggered Age of Consent
Latter told The Sunday Times: "Adults shouldn't be allowed to have sexual relationships with children. We all sort of agree that that's wrong; most of us [know] that adults shouldn't be allowed to have sexual relationships with children, with somebody under the age of 18.
"That really, really doesn't seem like a gigantic leap to take. So I think we need to start having the conversation about a staggered age of consent. It works in lots of other places."
