Russell Brand probed by production company after 'using staff at Big Brother spin-off as pimps to approach women' | The Sun

A PRODUCTION company that ran shows fronted by Russell Brand has launched an investigation into claims of inappropriate behaviour against him.

Banijay UK produced Big Brother spin-offs EFourum and Big Mouth, which Brand presented in the early 2000s.

In an investigation published by The Times, Brand was accused of rape, sexual assault and abuse by four women.

In the same report, former coworkers at Channel 4 alleged that he had pursued audience members for sex while working on the shows.

Two former employees told the publication that they felt like "pimps" as Brand used them to approach women he picked out.

One said: "Russell's pointing out women that he found attractive in the audience, then getting the runners to get their details so that they could meet up after the show.

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"I distinctly remember getting phone calls from women in tears the next day saying they'd met up with Russell.

"They were mainly upset because they just felt used.

"It was like we were taking lambs into slaughter. We were basically acting like pimps to Russell Brand’s needs."

And a former runner on one of the shows, who was 24 at the time, accused Brand of flashing her in his dressing room, adding that his alleged misconduct was an "open secret" in the industry.

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Named as Rachel, she said: "Production companies enabled him to exist in these environments where he was able to take advantage of who he was."

A spokesperson for Banijay UK said: "In light of the very serious allegations…relating to the alleged serious misconduct of Russell Brand produced by Endomol between 2004 and 2005 Banijay UK has launched an urgent internal investigation.

"We also ask anyone who feels that they were affected by Brand's behaviour while working on these productions to contact us in confidence."

They added that they would "cooperate" with any requests for information from their broadcast partners or any "external agencies".

Likewise, the police have urged any alleged victims to come forward to make a full report.

A spokesperson for the Met Police said: "We are aware of media reporting of a series of allegations of sexual assault.

"At this time, we have not received any reports in relation to this.

"If anyone believes they have been the victim of a sexual assault, no matter how long ago it happened, we would encourage them to contact police."

Meanwhile, Brand was also dropped by several charities that had received his public support.

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The Trevi Women & Children's Charity announced they would "cut ties" with the star, while food poverty charity The One Can Trust dumped him as an ambassador.

Operations manager Jo Belshaw said: "Following the extremely serious allegations concerning Russell Brand, I can confirm he is no longer an ambassador for the One Can Trust food bank."

Russell Brand’s video transcript in full

Hello there, you awakening wonders.

Now this isn't the usual type of video we make on this channel where we critique, attack and undermine the news in all its corruption because in this story I am the news.

I have received two extremely disturbing letters – well 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 my 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 are some 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 have written about extensively in my books I was very very promiscuous

Now during that time of promiscuity, the relationships I had were absolutely always consensual. I was always transparent about that then, almost too transparent. And I'm being transparent about it now as well. 

And to see that transparency metastasized into something criminal that I absolutely deny makes me question is there another agenda at play?

Particularly when we have seen coordinated media attacks before – like with Joe Rogan when he dared to take a medicine that the mainstream media didn't approve of and we saw a spate of headlines from media outlets across the world using the same language.

I’m aware that you guys have been saying in the comments for a while ‘Watch out Russell, they are coming for you, you are getting too close to the truth, Russell Brand did not kill himself’.

I know that a year ago there was a spate of articles ‘Russell Brand is a conspiracy theorist, Russell Brand’s right wing’.

I’m aware of news media making phone calls, sending letters to people I know for ages and ages.

It’s been clear to me or at least it feels to me like there's a serious and concerted agenda to control these kind of spaces and these kind of voices and I mean my voice along with your voice.

I don't mind them using my books and my stand up to talk about my promiscuous consensual conduct in the past. What I seriously refute are these very very serious criminal allegations. 

Also it’s worth mentioning that there are witnesses whose evidence directly contradicts the narratives that these two mainstream media outlets are trying to construct apparently in what seems to me to be a coordinated attack

Now I don't want to get into this any further because of the serious nature of the allegations, but I feel like I'm being attacked and plainly they are working very closely together

We are obviously going to look into this matter because it’s very, very serious. In the meantime I want you to stay close, stay awake but more important than any of that if you can, please, stay free.

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