Dispatches . Russel brand .

[fabmaccawhackythumbsaloft]

I actually like Russel brand . And I don't think he's ever hidden what he used to be in his heyday. He's always been very open about his drug use, and promiscuity.

I read his first book . I watch his videos on fb , and while I don't always agree with him, he seems to have totally overhauled his lifestyle, attitudes, is into yoga, self care, seems to be a decent husband and father .

Is this newsworthy ? Young famous comedian in heyday slept with lots and lots of women , consensually he says ?

Hes never hidden it.

On drug misuse I alWays had time for his views that it should be dealt with as a medical issue not a criminal one

What's the news story ?
I always feel like there is much glee and salivating before the media try and knock someone down.
I don't think this is a huw edwards where people would be shocked at him trying to pick up young women behind his wife's back

It seems that brand has settled down , lives a fairly mundane lifestyle and is happy with his choices .

Or am I completely missing something?

And back in the real world, rape is pretty much decriminalised in the UK.

What do you think will happen if a rape is reported to the police exactly?

The women get literally shredded, doxxed, harassed, have their phones and IT taken away [sometimes never to be seen again] their knickers will be pored over, every move they made will be taken as consent and this may go on for years.

And the man will as per usual get fucking fansites dedicated to supporting him.

Even if it did get to court he is so unlikely to ever face anything resembling a custodial sentence we may as well just not waste the money on the court.

And even if he did get a custodial sentence it would be bloody suspended. So he just carries on regardless.

Give your head a wobble. There is no justice for rape survivors. Only more terror.

That's not how it works. Any woman who has been raped or sexually assaulted can have an opinion, even without a police report/conviction. So can all the people they tell, their family,their friends,their therapist etc. I can post my story on here and anyone that reads it can have an opinion.

No there is no evidence, or witnesses, in fact the circumstances are so fucked up and unbelievable that it was pointless to say anything then and still is now, there isn't a police report or a conviction. It still fucking happened.

This thread has some parallels with the Letby threads, where it's clear that a lot of people's understanding of what constitutes proof and evidence is somewhat lacking. These investigative journalists have pulled together testimony from multiple sources to create a full picture of this man's behaviour over years. The accounts of his victims, the corroboration of colleagues, the text messages he sent and the way he behaved openly along with the culture of silence and how execs handled it all exposes how predatory men behave and get away with it. There's plenty of proof!

What's valuable here is how it contributes to a culture shift. Whether Brand faces justice or not - most rapists and sexual abusers never will - this kind of expose changes policies, it forces a reckoning within the industry and it changes the culture. Watching old footage of Brand, you realise what seemed acceptable or funny just a decade ago is not ok now. We learn how to recognise predators and how to challenge behaviour. The backlash, the attempt to discredit women for 'running to the media' (a complete and deliberate misinterpretation of what this is), the insistence that women should go to the police in full knowledge that they'll never get justice that way and men can continue to abuse with impunity is to be expected. A lot of men are very angry and confused to find that the culture that has always enabled predators is under the spotlight.

Like RedToothBrush says, Brand will get nowhere in claiming defamation here - because there is so much proof. Women's lives are shattered by rape, sexual assault and harassment all the time. Their careers are ruined, relationships destroyed, mental health broken by what men do with total impunity over and over. MeToo, investigative journalism and work like this is how we fight back - because the police and the courts will do nothing and predatory behaviour will just carry on. Until we shine a light on it - just as has happened here.

Tell me what my words are worth - ok I will. Bloody excellent post. You’ve so concisely summed it up 👏

Nazir Afzal sums it up I think.

We can only have an opinion after legal proceedings? whilst I really hope there is a legal case to be processed here, society doesn’t run on legalities alone.

People can, and will, have opinions based on the information they have in front of them. They have to because the law is reactive not proactive and doesn’t cover everything, generally, people need to utilise information to protect themselves.

Should a shop not specifically monitor a well known shoplifter because they haven’t been convicted? if I see a local dog walker boot a dog should people carry on leaving their dog in their care until the police have said they’ve broken the law?

character assassination? I’m not seeing it. Brand has spoken freely about some of the things his accusers have raised, but only from his perspective when we all presumed these things happened in consenting situations. Turns out the women used as props to his circus have their perspective too and it’s not pretty.

The newsreader was publicly humiliated constantly on air, put in a complaint to her bosses then, instead of doing anything about it, they told Brand, who then told everyone ON AIR that she didn't like it and had complained. He was then rewarded with the contract being given for the programme to his own production company! What is the point of taking this anywhere? These women did complain. They went to the management. They were dismissed. They should probably have taken complaints to the police, but they would have never been able to work in their chosen career again and probably not had a chance of a conviction. The producers, executives who enabled Brand should also be on the hook for this.

No, sorry that wasn't my point. I understand why convicting rapists is hard, often it's a your word against theirs situation.

My point was that poster I quoted seems to think we should not have an opinion until a conviction takes place, and I disagree with this.

If someone is being accused by multiple women of rape and sexual assault you should have an opinion and you should be looking at their behaviour. Unfortunately people seem to make excuses and believe the "innocent until proven guilty" line, even though all the data shows most rapist get away with their crimes. Getting a conviction maybe hard but we can change how we treat these perpetrators in society.

I'm going to try and watch the program tonight, and come to my own conclusions...there are endless articles all over the internet

Are you a flat earther too?

Based on the credibility of the victims and the evidence-based diligence of the journalists, you have to have your head in the sand in Cloud Cuckoo Land to not accept that he at least:

Raped a woman.

Groomed and sexually assaulted a 16 year old.

Attacked and attempted to rape a third woman.

A trial would just provide a spectacle of these victims character's being attacked by his expensive defence lawyers.

Reports like this do actually provide evidence in a way, purely through existing.

The evidence is that RB’s lawyers were unable to stop the programme going to air or the report going to print. In itself that’s pretty damning as far as I’m concerned. Let’s see if he takes any action after the fact. He has plenty of financial resources to pursue it even if he has lost the backing of various partnerships.

Honestly this thread needs to be zapped. With comments like this it's no wonder so many women stay silent. Shameful.

"Anti establishment figures" 😂Their sole purpose is to grift and line their pockets with the money of gullible fools. They're just as guilty as following the money as the establishment their railing against!

If "allegations like these are easy to produce" why did it take 3 years building a case?

Had Russell brand been cancelled quietly ? Is that why he is no longer on our screens? Is that why he has taken to his own channel ?

The programme provided ample evidence supporting allegations that Brand is a rapist. I hope that it will have encouraged more victims to come forward and that the police will eventually be in a position where prosecutions can be luanched.

The prgramme also provided ample evidence that C4 and its production companies and the BBC were staggeringly complicit in allowing his behaviour to continue and failing to protect employees (and audience members). If nothing else, this makes the programme fit its self-description as a major news story. Major employers, treating vulnerable employees as lambs to the slaughter. The BBC, for Christs sake. The amount of minimising about all this on MN. FFS.

Maybe in some ways. But he still had a show at Wembley last night so not in any meaningful way.

Not sure, but his transformation to this anti establishment conspiracy peddler makes more sense as he will now claim 'they' are targeting him because he's exposed the truth on other things (a load of shite of course) and lots will lap it up.

I read the allegations and watched the programme. I think there will be so many more women who have been raped and sexually assaulted by RB. I hope they are able to tell others, be believed and get the support they need.

This was some decades ago. I and my then OH saw Brand for the first time on TV and were shocked by what we saw. Prancing about with a stick he went behind a woman while doing an audience Q and A and pretended to fuck the back of her head. So violently her head was being banged back and forth. I think it was BBLB, but I'm getting old and past it, but I remember the incident because I was so shocked.

Why is this a contribution? Well, I wrote to C4 at the time complaining about his behaviour, it wasn't OK, sets a tone for young watchers about consent and frankly was a televised assault.

Commented on Digi Spy, Guardian and a fan forum about my shock and many others at the time joined in. Obviously you get the usual superfans pretending not to be excusing it, as you see on this thread so blatantly. I've not been able to stomach him on TV since, but that's by the buy.

What happened to the complaint, I had a stock reply which I lost many inboxes ago. But the woman to whom it happened posted online later on in reply to me saying how it was all in fun, she laughed it off later and "its just russell". I was speechless, and shut up about it. After all, on live TV, an assault, I took it more seriously than the victim.

Anyhow if in that atmosphere she went along with it, I do wonder who else went along with it and if she really felt it was "OK"

But it's an insight if a small one into production companies closing ranks, denying the evidence of your eyes and continuing as normal, and an adult not able or willing to stand up to someone for whom consent is a flaky concept after being violently f#cked in the back of the head on live TV.

But having seen this behaviour at the time, I have little doubt that what these women say is true, that we let him get away with it in plain sight. No doubt whatsoever. It screamed "rapey b#stard" at the time. So it's a small stretch of shamless behavior further.

I can't bring myself to watch the documentary, but those doubting the victims and casting doubt on their testimony need to give their heads a wobble.

I'll see if I can find footage.

Yes. Again, if you read the Times article, it said they requested the apparent evidence refuting the claims, but the lawyers couldn't produce it.

Quite probably.

He was well known as being problematic anyway. Regardless of the extent of the allegations. This is a man who had been repeatedly sacked for his conduct in other ways. which is unusual in itself. It wasn't just once.

More than that, those junior staff in the early 2000s got promoted and wouldn't want to work with him. Those celebrities who knew his (Katherine Ryan?) maybe refused to work with him.

And actually his 'act' was fundamentally dated post Weinstein. You couldn't go around saying the things he'd done previously on TV and radio because it was disrespectful to women. The audience wouldn't have tolerated it anymore.

That's why Brand went to YouTube because that's where incel culture was thriving with others like Andrew Tate.

Red pill. Blue pill.

Unless we have been directly affected by brand, in which case please contact the police, we can’t change this outcome, but we can see the Russell’s amongst us and call out this vile predatory behaviour when we see it. This Christmas Simon from accounts can not force his tongue down his colleagues mouth for ‘fun’ - the dirty old ‘harmless’ uncle doesn’t get to touch you in a creepy way and make you feel uncomfortable.it’s not okay to behave in a rude, misogynistic and predatory way just because you have done for years.

There is PLENTY we can do to protect ourselves and fight back against this insidious culture, and more importantly perhaps for our daughters.

They can no longer harm us in broad daylight pretending it’s for jokes. This can and has to stop.

It’s such a shame ‘no pill’ isn’t more popularised.

Agree. He doesnt know what he is talking about. He has jumped on the anti establishment MSM bandwagon because its where the money is now. The only link between him being 'anti establishment' is that predatory behaviour gets covered up by the MSM while that person is making money for media organisations and tabloids, then once they aren't making them money anymore, they stop bothering to shut things down.

OP, when I saw who the programme was going to be about I felt the same way as you did - except I've never liked him much.

Warmed to him in recent years as he's a fellow vegan but that's about it.

Only had to see the first few minutes of Dispatches to be convinced he's guilty.