Brand faces new claims as more women come forward after TV exposé

MORE women were today reported to have come forward to make allegations against Russell Brand as the head of a parliamentary committee called for police to begin a criminal investigation into his conduct.

- Martin Bentham and Rachael Burford

"Several" new alleged victims were said to have contacted The Times and The Sunday Times in the wake of the claims of sexual assaults, including rape, made by four women to the papers and Channel 4's Dispatches programme. The Sunday Times also disclosed that it had compiled a list of least 10 more potential victims whose cases had yet to be brought to public attention.

One of his alleged victims, a woman being referred to as Nadia, claimed to The Times that Brand had raped her in 2012 at his Los Angeles home and said she was relieved that she and other women had finally come forward because he needed "to be stopped".

"He cannot hurt me any more and hopefully he will not hurt anybody else," she added, telling the paper how Brand had allegedly been "grabbing at my underwear, pulling it to the side" while she was "telling him 'to get off of me' and he won't get off" before "pushing himself in me" with a "glazed look in his eye" as he ignored her demands to stop.

Medical records seen by The Times show that she was treated at a rape crisis centre the same day, while text messages between the comic and Nadia show him saying sorry for his "crazy and selfish" behaviour, although precisely what he was apologising for was not clear. Brand, 48, a former BBC presenter who appeared widely in the media and gave evidence to MPs on drugs, now has huge followings on Instagram, Tik Tok and YouTube. He has strongly denied the allegations, insisting that all his sexual relationships were consensual.

But, as further claims emerged that BBC licence fee money had been used to pay for a car sent to pick up a 16-year-old girl from school to take her to Brand, disturbing clips of his past conduct on his Radio 2 show deepened the controversy about the previous apparent tolerance of his behaviour.