BRAND FACES RAPE CHARGE

Five sex assault allegations by four victims' over six years

- TOM PETTIFOR and LUCY NEEDHAM

RUSSELL Brand has been charged with five sex offences against four women, including rape, in alleged assaults said to date back 26 years.

The British TV personality is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court next month. He is charged with the rape of a woman in 1999 in the Bournemouth area, and the oral rape and sexual assault of a woman in 2004 in Westminster.

Brand has also been charged with indecently assaulting a woman in 2001 and sexually assaulting another woman between 2004 and 2005 – both alleged offences also in Westminster.

Reacting to the charges in a video posted online, Brand, 50, said: “I was a fool before I lived in the light of the Lord.

ADDICT

“I was a drug addict and a sex addict and an imbecile, but what I never was, was a rapist. I have never engaged in non-consensual acts.

He added: “I've never engaged in non-consensual activity. I pray that you can see that by looking in my eyes.”