Celebrity Paedogeddon and old men yelling at clouds

In early 2019, The Sunday Times was made aware of allegations against Russell Brand relating to his treatment of women.

The Sunday Times reporter Rosamund Urwin began speaking to sources in comedy, showbusiness and the film industry.

Within the world of comedy, there had been allegations circling for a number of years.

Most spoke of Brand as an intimidating figure, and were worried about speaking out, with many only agreeing to talk to our journalists anonymously.

Some mentioned they had previously been approached by other media, but those organisations had never published or broadcast.

At the same time that Urwin had been conducting her inquiries, The Times had also been investigating Brand.

Brand’s alleged victims with the most serious allegations of sexual assault would eventually agree to let both publications share their stories.

Over the course of this investigation, a team of journalists contacted hundreds of people.

These included friends and family of alleged victims, comedians, executives in the TV industry and people who worked alongside, and for, Brand.

Three of the alleged victims have spent hours being interviewed by our journalists, both in person and during extensive phone conversations.

They have also provided substantial information to corroborate their allegations.

None of the women whose stories we are telling know each other.

No one involved was paid to contribute to our reporting.

Brand denies all of the allegations and says all of his relationships have been consensual.

The timeline
At the start of 2021, The Sunday Times was contacted by Alice*, who had become aware of our investigation.

She alleges Brand was sexually and emotionally abusive towards her in 2006, when she was 16 and he was 30.

Alice had never spoken out before. Four months earlier, she had decided to contact Brand’s agent with her allegations. The agent had passed her to a lawyer acting for Brand, who denied her allegations and took no further action.

In autumn 2022, Channel 4’s Dispatches formally began collaborating with The Sunday Times to investigate Brand.

Prior to this, the broadcaster had also been speaking to sources within the TV and comedy industries.

As the investigation expanded, The Times and The Sunday Times began working together.

In April this year, The Times journalist Charlotte Wace was introduced to Nadia* by a contact.

Nadia alleges she was raped by Brand in Los Angeles in July 2012.

Our journalists went through a wealth of evidence, provided by Nadia, which corroborated her claims. These included therapy notes from a rape treatment centre, text messages, details of call records, photographs and a version of a letter she says she sent to Brand about the impact of the alleged rape on her life.

A short time later, The Times spoke to Phoebe*, who claims she was sexually assaulted in 2013 while she was working at Brand’s home.

All the women’s claims required corroboration, which took many hours of work.

The Sunday Times and The Times put the three women at the centre of this investigation in contact with Channel 4’s Dispatches.

Those involved re-read Brand’s memoirs, watched and listened to hundreds of hours of recordings of his old comedy sets, radio shows and TV appearances.

Freedom of Information requests were also placed with a number of organisations.

Finally journalists approached Brand, his representatives, the BBC, Channel 4 and the production company Endemol with detailed allegations. On Friday night, Brand released a video denying all of the allegations in our investigation.

*these names have been changed