Russell Brand - everyone knew

[Mooshamoo]

I was watching the comedian Katherine Ryan say to Louis theroux that a British comedian is a sexual perpetrator. It is now believed that she was talking about Russell brand. She said on the video "when it eventually comes out about these type of people, Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, this unmentionable British personality, it turns out that everyone knew. Everyone knew. ".

I was wondering did anyone on here on mumsnet know anything about Russell brand? A lot of us lived in London when her was living there. And many women on here would have been a similar age to Russell brand . I lived in London for a year and I saw Russell brand out on a night out once. That was the extent of it. I was wondering did anyone on here have any experience with him, or know about a friend/acquaintance that had any experiences with him.

I think he pretty much had SLEAZE tattooed on his forehead.

Obviously the rapes and the sexual assault make this a bigger story but the fact he was a predatory misogynist should come as no surprise to anyone.

He tried it on with a friend who worked in TV back in the day (who has a fairly high tolerance for this sort of thing) and apparently he literally tried to fuck anything that moved.

There are also several threads running on here about it.

What children did he abuse? The 16 year old?

But if people knew, then what next? Inform the police? Police can't do anything much without someone willing to press charges (and I totally get why they wouldn't) but then what?

This.

We had the Huw Edwards shambles a few weeks ago. The Sun accusing him of all sorts, then had to back down. Yes, Edwards might have been sleazy, but he didn't actually do anything unlawful.

I read something today about his abuse of animals as a child, apparently, it's in his book.
In a country that prides itself on how we treat our pets, it's strange that it's only now being looked at.

I always found him repellent and repulsive, and suspected but I didn't know. There are other popular 'personalities' that I have doubts about, but not to the same level.

The pp asks what children he abused he made comments like baby doll,called her child and made her read from a lolita book,to me that suggests an interest in underage girls, now he may not have done anything with underage girls but it sounds like the intent was there and even thinking it is absolutely sickening

I knew him a bit in his early 20's, when he was dating my friend (who I've since lost touch with). To be honest, I can't say that I always picked up evil vibes from him or anything sensational. I'm not going to be wise after the event. He was quite good company, but a bit too brash and full of himself for my liking. I was one of a couple of friends saying that we didn't trust him as far as we could throw him. I'm not going to claim that we thought he was a predator, just that we suspected he wasn't going to be trustworthy around other women.

He should have the same protection from unsubstantiated rumour as anyone else,
no more and no less. If this is unsubstantiated then he has the right to sue for libel. It would be a worrying restriction on press freedom if we prohibited this sort of investigative journalism. The journalists will have had to produce a lot of evidence to satisfy their lawyers that it was safe to go ahead and publish. If he thinks they’ve published without good enough evidence then Brand is as free as any other person to pursue a libel claim.

@66rabbits Well put, that’s my take on the situation as well.

I wasn’t living in London and I’ve never met him, just seen interviews. He oozed sex and sleaze back then, it was a huge part of his persona as you say. 🤮

Yes a 16 year old is a child.

Could you afford to hire a lawyer and defend yourself against legal action from a multi millionaire? And in the process have your name and reputation dragged through the press?

Of course not. 99.9% of women couldn't risk it.

'Everyone knew' that he raped and sexually assaulted women because women talk to each other.
But who is going to risk a public accusation?

The thing that really grinds my bones is that this known (insignificant) sleazeball who disappeared into the realms of unhinged conspiracy theorists, is now being afforded oxygen.

He's gaining loads of publicity on the back of this and, oh, he just happens to have a tour at the moment.

This is a complete non-event, despite the misguided 16 year old, who apparently visited him on more than one occasion. This is hardly Saville territory, but he is absolutely milking it. Wise up folks!

Unfortunately, 16 is old enough for consent even though you're basically still a child.

This.

It makes me very uncomfortable that we can now just decide to jump on the bandwagon of “Look at me I have special knowledge”. It’s ghoulish.

I work in the media, I knew about Weinstein, Saville and Harris before stories broke. Never heard a peep about RB until this week. I also have a friend who very proudly shagged him, just once, and said he was great etc but he didn’t call as promised (she didn’t expect him to, given he was literally Shagger of the Year she’d have been foolish to as well).

He sleazed onto a friend of mine and tried to get her to go on a date with him. She found him repulsive and refused. He was very persistent.

Age of consent isn't the point.

It is the fact that she was a child and he was abusing her.

@lifeturnsonadime
I agree.

Yep. Never met him, but I know several who have (long media career). "He literally tried to fuck anything that moved" just about sums up the feedback.

"Like a dog with three dicks" was one memorable quote.

That and his questionable hygiene. Very bad BO, apparently.

I feel so sorry for his wife and kids. There's no way back from all this. That's their family destroyed.

But she didn’t consent, so that’s irrelevant. She says he forced his penis down her throat without consent and only stopped when she punched him herd in the stomach. She also says he subjected her to other physical and emotional abuse. This are serious child abuse allegations.

@lifeturnsonadime except it's not a child legally. It wasn't uncommon for year 11 and sixth formers to be dating men in their late 20's and early 30's back then. Reading the stuff about pretending to be family etc brought back memories of high school. Girls often said their boyfriends were the cousin of a friend or the brother of a distant friend in order to appease parents and give their relationship some sort of legitimacy and credibility. If that was to go on now, it wouldn't be allowed and alarm bells would ring loud and clear. The issue of consent can't and shouldn't be minimised but the age thing didn't sound like an unfamiliar scenario.

It was commonly discussed on gossip sites for a number of years, the line of discussion was that he was untouchable due to his lawyers. Obviously you never know if that stuff is true, it often isn’t. But this particular discussion was persistent and made it very unsurprising when the report came out.

Just going to the police doesn't really work though, does it - when only 1% of reported rapes even get to court.

He was sending cars from the BBC round to school to pick her up to take him to her house to abuse her.

I had an inappropriate relationship with an older man when I was 17, a similar power issue.

It is abuse and it was not consensual as her testimony told us.

I raised this point because someone said that he should be granted anonymity. Why should a man who abuses power to abuse a child be granted anonymity?