Russell Brand faces a new accuser in the United States just days after being sentenced to prison in the UK. The comedian is beginning a 10-and-a-half-year prison term for raping and sexually assaulting four women between 2004 and 2009.
New Allegation in the US
According to a report from Page Six published on Tuesday, November 10, a woman in the US has come forward with a new accusation against Brand. The report states that the woman claims she was victimised by Brand and is in communication with the high-profile attorney Gloria Allred.
Brand denied any wrongdoing during the four-week trial at Southwark Crown Court. A jury found him guilty of one rape of a fan and three sexual assaults against TV and radio workers in the early 2000s.
Background and Sentencing
By the end of that decade, Brand had married US pop star Katy Perry and moved to the US. They divorced after 14 months of marriage in 2011, but Brand owned properties in LA during his Hollywood movie career, reports The Mirror US.
His wife was in court when Brand was sentenced. He mouthed "we'll be OK" to her when he was taken away by court officers.
Judge Joel Bennathan denounced Brand's "casual and arrogant disregard" for any woman who said no to him. He also castigated him for the series of lies he told in testimony denying assaults that dated to 2004.
Judge's Remarks and Impact
"About 20 years ago, Russell Brand, you were becoming famous," Bennathan said. "You were clever - and in many people's eyes, funny and charismatic. You had also become a sexual predator." Bennathan said Brand's entourage may have written off the sexual assault as "laddish," the boorish and obnoxious behaviour for which Brand was known and with which he thought he could get away.
"It was outrageous and possibly laddish, but also a criminal sexual offense, and as it turns out you haven't got away with it," the judge said. A woman whom Brand groped during a birthday party at a London bar in 2004 said that the assault left her in shock and turmoil and made her feel like "damaged goods."
"It was impossible to escape seeing him all over the media, being celebrated for his disgusting behavior against women like it was all a joke," she said. "Mr Brand abused the influence and power that came with his fame," prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones said. "He used it to facilitate access to women without which the offending could not have taken place. It also fed his own view that he could commit such offences with impunity."
The Daily Star has approached Gloria Allred and Brand's legal team for comment.
