BBC says 2 more people have come forward to complain about Russell Brand’s behavior

By SYLVIA HUI
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — The BBC said Tuesday two more people have come forward to complain about Russell Brand since the broadcaster launched a review into the actor and comedian’s behavior.

The BBC was giving an update to its investigation after British media outlets in September published claims by four women that they were sexually assaulted by Brand between 2006 and 2013, at the height of his fame.

Brand, 48, has denied the allegations.

The comedian worked as a BBC radio presenter from 2006 to 2008. The broadcaster said it recorded a total of five complaints against Brand, including two people who raised complaints and concerns during the time Brand worked there and again after he left the corporation.

Another person made a separate complaint after Brand’s departure, and two further people have come forward since the BBC launched its investigation in September.

The broadcaster’s statement from Peter Johnston, its director of editorial complaints, did not specify the nature of the latest allegations. But its news website reported that they are “understood to relate to his workplace conduct, and are not of a serious sexual nature.”

The claims against Brand, published in September by The Times and Sunday Times newspapers and in a Channel 4 documentary, include allegations that Brand sexually assaulted one woman during a relationship with him when she was 16. Another woman says Brand raped her in Los Angeles in 2012. The accusers have not been named.

Referring to allegations from one of the women that Brand used BBC cars to drive her from school to his home when she was 16, the broadcaster said it no longer had its records of car bookings from the time.

It said investigations are ongoing.

“Although my work is in no way complete and therefore I cannot yet reach any conclusions, it would appear that no disciplinary action was taken against Russell Brand during his engagement with the BBC in 2006-8 prior to his departure from the BBC,” Johnston said.

Two U.K. police forces, the Metropolitan Police and Thames Valley Police, launched investigations against Brand after the claims were published.

Brand has issued a statement saying his relationships were “always consensual.”