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.

The thing is there's not much to investigate. DNA evidence can be explained away as being consensual so all your left with is one persons word against another person's word. This is the case with most rape cases and along with that these women are going against a millionaire.
This is the problem with innocent until proven guilty.. If we go along with that way of thinking we are telling 99% of rape victims that we don't believe them.
The strongest evidence in this case is that it's not just one person's word against another's it's at least five.
The idea that any of these women could just walk into a police station and be taken seriously enough that their rapist stands in front of a jury is a fairytale for most.. that service isn't there.
So tell me what evidence would you need to see to believe these women, a video of Russell Brand forcing oral on a school girl, text messages apologising to his victim,how many victims do you need if five isn't enough.. 10..20?? Really think about the question, What do you need to see before you believe women?

I don’t think it was just the money aspect (money that he was making for whoever employed him) that made him ‘untouchable’. It was also because, like Jimmy Savile, he had for some unfathomable reason become to many people some sort of icon, a ‘hero’ of the world of entertainment.

I say ‘to many’ because a good many others always found both of them distasteful, if not actually repulsive.

Yes, it is different because the investigative journalists will only publish things with good evidence. RB is happy to publish without any evidence whatsoever in the name of free speech. He invites people to watch him on Rumble rather than YouTube because you can say what you like on Rumble whereas youtube is slightly more restrictive with regard to misinformation. He has been more than happy to bullshit/lie/grift if it makes him money and people may have died as a result of believing the lies.

You know that at least one of the journalists are known to be unreliable? They've have had to take their names from the record of this investigation because they were sued for wrongful reporting? They ruined someone's life because of their slanderous reporting in the papers? It's all over X (Twitter) the victim has gone public with her story. She's saying that the journalists are unreliable.

You mentioned that yesterday. As I said then, if it's on Twitter it's in the public domain so are you actually going to link to the post on Twitter so we can see what she has said ?

of course not. Howvere tgere are degrees in manic behaviour and couple with drugs and alcohol it’s not a goid mix. One of the victims mentioned his “black” eyes glazing over. Not evil possession obviously but usually causes by adrenalin at the height of mania. My point is he was totally out of control, dangerous and yet not only allowed to continue working but being pandered to!

Sorry for typos, not wearing my glasses!?!

Exactly.

Firstly, he has been accused by several women which makes it much more likely than not that he is a sexual predator. Secondly, you are talking as if he has received a prison sentence when all that has happened is that people are talking about it and why shouldn't they,? It seems that those who normally shout vociferously for free speech now want people including journalists to be silenced.

If there are several women that would form the evidence at a trial.

I don't want to stop people talking about it, or journalists reporting, or women sharing thier stories, but I don't want people's livlihoods to be removed before investigations, a trial, defense, and conviction.

I know it's a real diffiuclty getting rape convictions but the answr to that cannot be assume everyone accused is guilty and act accordingly. Do you really not see the terrible consequences for society if we took that route? It would not help women and you are astonishingly naive if you think it would be a good outcome to treat all accused men as guilty and cast them out of thier jobs and community without due process.

Talk about it all you like, but remember you do not know if RB is a rapist or not you just know he's been accused.

Brand still hasn't been arrested/been invited in for a chat - as far as we're being told

But at least the PC who shot Chris Kaba has been charged with murder after 12 months- his arrest wasn't publicised either

This is my opinion too. I don’t like the man but that is no reason for me to endorse this media frenzy. Just because he is renowned for some despicable behaviour doesn’t mean he is guilty of anything criminal.

His livelihood depends on people watching his content, on platforms that raise advertising money against his content. It is entirely right that these platforms, and prospective viewers make their own mind up on whether to engage in this transaction.

He doesn’t need to be a convicted rapist for people to decide his particular brand of misogyny isn’t something no they want to support with their money.

The only thing a court case would influence is his freedom to continue his grifting.

Unless you’re saying all of it is a lie?

What do you mean people cannot act accordingly? No doubt some companies aren't going to want to use his services in the future but why should they? Do you think companies do not have the right to choose what services they use? He will still be able to earn plenty of money promoting his conspiracy theories on Rumble etc

I wasn’t suggesting the papers be gagged

But you were suggesting that. You said he shouldn’t have his name all over the papers before anything had been proved. That’s exactly the same as saying no reporting until conviction/proof of civil liability. Which is an extremely draconian restriction on press freedom way beyond the status quo. If you didn’t mean that, then you need to be clearer.

I'm not giving permission, I'm just explianing that I'm not tying to shut it down like it was suggested was being done.

The journalists have invetigated as they can and should do, that still doesn't mean he's guilty of anything, they have reported on accusations. People will discuss those accustaions and have opinions.

You can call me names all you like, but you do not know if Russell Brand is rapist just that he's been accused.
Not the same thing.

This is awful and acknowledge you for speaking out.

It still doesn’t mean it was completely normal for the time, though appreciate that was your experience, you can’t speak for everyone and others who had a different one.

As you can appreciate here, yours is not the only or even majority view on the current situation.

The law has caught up now at least.

Absolutely. It is amazing his employers thought him fit for work. His presentation was so florid and disinhibited, his speech disrupted from typical patterns, anyone today would recognise the need for some assessment. I am surprised how times have changed, how he was encouraged to continue working at that time.

But he is not even a non-convicted rapist yet. He hasn’t even been charged with anything. Can’t people see that this business completely undermines one of the principles of English law that someone is innocent until proven guilty. How would you feel if it were you or someone you care about that was treated this way. The principle protects us all. Of course the system isn’t perfect but it is better than mob rule.

We are very far from being on the same page. I believe in the rule of law. Most on this thread so not seem to.

The man who raped me hasn't been charged or convicted of anything either.

He's still a rapist.

FGS how is this so hard to understand? I didn't feel strong enough to go to the police about my rape. The man is well respected in the local community and I would have been vilified. This does not mean I was not raped.

Given that less than 2% of rapes result in conviction I am very much not alone in this.

In the end I think some of these women would do better to sue their employers for failure of duty of care.

The criminal justice system is broken. And that favours a defendant. The Met police have serious problems with misogynistic attitudes and the conviction rate for rape goes down every year. These issues won't be fixed quickly or soon.

There is no statute of limitations on making a compliant criminally and Brand will have to live with this risk for the rest of his life. It is deserved.

Where is his wife in all of this? They've got young children, right?

Must be pretty awful for her if it's all completely new information; and must have been a nightmare if she really knew him in that light and was repeatedly mistreated by him.

My rapist has also not been convicted. It's so hard for women as women just can't win in these scenarios a lot of the times.

I lived in a small town. As these things typically go with the abuse of power, he was from a prominent rich well known local family, and I was not.

I didn't feel strong enough to charge him and face all his rich wealthy connected supporters in court. I knew even if he was convicted of rape, that my life had been ruined.

As it happened my life was ruined anyway. I started to fall apart from what happened and I told a couple of people what had happened which i should have not had done. As it didn't help me. I also jumped with fright any time I bumped into him and his friends around town. The couple of people I told ,told everyone else what I had said, and I became shunned by his friends around the town. They were everywhere. One of his friends was a barman for exmaple, and he would refuse to serve me. I had to move away. It's scarred me for life. While the rapist himself now is a senior manager , glittering career, beautiful wife etc.

If you get raped you can't win. Society does not support women.

@Mooshamoo I am so sorry that happened to you.

This idea that a man cannot be a rapist unless convicted or charged is astonishing.

Consent has to come from the woman, that's why if a woman says she did not consent I believe her.

When a woman says she has been raped her life then is up for scrutiny. How many times woman are accused of 'asking for it' by wearing the 'wrong clothes' or drinking alcohol or being alone? It's no wonder women don't report rape to the police.

I just don't believe that false rape allegations are a common occurrence, there is nothing in it for the woman.

But we've seen it on here, that the 16 year old was 'asking for it' by agreeing to be picked up by RB.

As a society we need to be able to call these men out in the absence of good criminal justice outcomes, which are frankly non existent for women who have been raped or sexually abused.