Russell Brand speaks for first time after being accused of rape and sexual assault

Russel Brand has spoken for the first time since being accused of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse.

In a short video shared on his social media channels tonight (22 September), the star told how it has “been an extraordinary and distressing week” and thanked his fans for their support.

Four women made the claims about the star in a Dispatches documentary and Sunday Times story, which were released last Saturday (16 September). Other women also accused him of predatory behaviour in the programme and article.

After the airing of the show, YouTube suspended the monetisation of Brand’s channel for “violating our Creator Responsibility policy”.

Dame Caroline Dinenage, chair of the House of Commons media committee, also wrote to Rumble, where the star regularly shares videos, to say she was “concerned” that he could profit from his content – but it refused to suspend the monetisation of his channel.

The Metropolitan Police announced following the airing of the show that it has received a report of a sexual assault, which is alleged to have happened in London 20 years ago, and told how officers are in contact with the woman.

Brand said in the clip: “Obviously It has been an extraordinary and distressing week and thank you very much for your support and for questioning the information you have been presented with.

“By now you are probably aware that the British Government have asked big tech platforms to censor our online content and some online platforms have complied with that request. What you may not know is that this happens in the context of the Online Safety Bill which is a piece of UK legislation that grants sweeping survielance and censorship powers and is a law that has already been passed.

“I also don’t imagine you’ve heard of the trusted news initiative. Now this is often the case when a word like trusted is used as part of an acronym to describe an elected body. Trust is the last thing you should be offering.

“The trusted news initiative is a collaboration between big tech and legacy media organisations to target control, choke and shut down independent media organisations like this one.”

Brand also told how he would now be primarily posting videos from Rumble at the moment and urged his fans to watch his content on the site, saying it would keep him and his channel “independent,” adding: “I need your support now more than ever and more than I even imagined I would.”.

After YouTube suspended the monetisation of Brand’s channel, it said in a statement: “We have suspended monetisation on Russell Brand’s channel for violating our Creator Responsibility policy. If a creator’s off-platform behaviour harms our users, employees or ecosystem, we take action to protect the community.”