Russell Brand has admitted to having "exploitative" sexual relations with a 16-year-old girl during the height of his fame, but insists his actions did not constitute a criminal offence. The comedian, who has since turned to podcasting, is scheduled to stand trial this autumn on multiple allegations of rape and sexual assault brought by six women.
Brand's Confession and Defence
Brand, now 50 years old, categorically denies all charges, which span the period from 1999 to 2009. In a recent appearance on the YouTube programme hosted by US journalist Megyn Kelly, the entertainer described his past behaviour as "selfish" and labelled himself an "exploiter of women."
He stated: "In Europe and the United Kingdom, where I’m from, the age of consent is 16, and I did sleep with a 16-year-old when I was 30. When I was 30, I was a very different person. I was a lot younger, and I was an immature 30-year-old."
Brand elaborated further, saying: "Consensual sex with a lot of people, when there is a strong power differential, as there is when you are a famous man who has the ability to attract women that I had at that time, I think involves exploitation. I think it is exploitative. I recognise that my sexual conduct in the past was selfish and I did not apply enough consideration, barely any I suppose, really, to how that sex was affecting other people."
The Charges Against Him
Brand, who formerly hosted Big Brother spin-off programmes, had his own BBC Radio 2 show, and featured in numerous Hollywood films, faces a total of seven charges: three counts of rape, three allegations of sexual assault, and one count of indecent assault. His trial is set to commence on 12 October at Southwark Crown Court.
Earlier court proceedings revealed that Brand is accused of raping a woman in a hotel room while she attended a Labour Party conference in Bournemouth, grabbing a television worker's breasts and orally raping her after dragging her into a male toilet, and kissing and groping a radio worker after pushing her against a wall.
Reflections on Fame and Consent
During his YouTube interview, Brand, who has now embraced Christianity, suggested that in his younger years he was among the "innocuous party boy-style exploiters of women." He commented: "It’s plainly something that exists within our industry, and one might say culture at large. While I was transgressing lines of being as a person that was sleeping with people because I had availability to – not only by the way with waitresses and strippers and fans and people, but powerful women as well, powerful professional women that had gravitas and status and power – I was only really thinking of myself. I had consensual sex with lots and lots of women, and you can argue that’s not appropriate, but the age of consent is an important thing and the ability to consent is an important thing."
Brand continued: "What fame gave me, and what addiction fuelled, was opportunity for endless consent, which led me to be a hedonist and a fool and an exploiter of women. That is wrong, and something that needs to redeemed and addressed, and atoned for. What I’m obviously not only querying, but violently or aggressively or assertively opposing, is the idea this is a judicial criminal matter where consent was overridden. Actually what happened was consent was directed. That’s what being famous and being charismatic affords you, is the ability to direct consent. That doesn’t mean it’s right, it’s actually not right, it’s wrong. It’s a sin, it’s an expression of selfishness and forced idolatry."
Current Legal Status
Brand, who owns a property in Buckinghamshire but currently resides in the United States, remains on bail while awaiting trial.
