cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/2414370

An investigation by the Sunday Times and Channel 4's Dispatches has accused Russell Brand of rape, sexual assaults and emotional abuse, which he strenuously denies

Comedian Russell Brand had to have a 'no sex' clause written into his contract when he landed the Big Brother spin off show presenting job, it has been claimed in Channel 4's Dispatches programme.

The 48-year-old, who has starred in Hollywood films, been a stand-up and is now a Youtube star, is accused of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse, allegations which he has vehemently denied. Dispatches claims to have spoken to women who have been assaulted or emotionally abused by the Arthur actor.

While the show was being aired, Brand was performing in front of a crowd of 2,000 fans at the Troubador Theatre, Wembley, the first time he has been seen since the allegations were first made by Dispatches, the Sunday Times and The Times. He told the crowd: "I really appreciate your support. I love you. I want to do a fantastic show for you. I've got a lot of things to talk to you about. There are obviously some things that I absolutely can not talk about - and I appreciate that you will understand."

It comes less than 24 hours after Brand took to his own Youtube channel to address the claims in a statement last two minutes and 45 seconds. Brand said: "I've received two extremely disturbing letters or a letter and an email. One from a mainstream media TV company, one from a newspaper listing a litany of extremely egregious and aggressive attacks, as well as some pretty stupid stuff like community festival should be stopped, that I shouldn't be able to attack mainstream media narratives on this channel.

"But amidst this litany of astonishing rather baroque attacks, often very serious allegations that I absolutely refute. These allegations pertain to the time when I was working in the mainstream, when I was in the newspapers all the time, when I was in the movies. And as I've written about extensively in my books, I was very, very promiscuous."

One of the women interviewed as part of the Dispatches documentary claims Brand had a 'no sex' clause written into his contract, which she says he told her about after they had slept together when he is said to have urged her to keep it a secret. She said: "One of the memories which is very vivid is I must’ve gone to see what he wanted for lunch, he saw it was me and turned around. I wasn’t close to him but I saw he had his penis out of his shorts.

"I was scared to rock the boat, I felt very anxious, I was scared of what the repurcussions would be. I wasn’t going to tell anyone what he’d done because I didn’t want to lose hey job. His flirations grew stronger with me, I wss flattered, I was sucked Ito his world, He was a very intoxicating person."

Brand's colleague met up with him and they had sex for the first time and it was then that she claims he told her she "couldn’t tell anyone else on the crew, it had to be a complete secret. He had it written into his contact he wasn’t allowed to have any sexual contact with anyone working on Big Brother." In Brand's own autobiography, he admits his agent had to sign a contract saying the star would be no trouble."

If you've been the victim of sexual assault, you can access help and resources via www.rapecrisis.org.uk or calling the national telephone helpline on 0808 802 9999.