Russell Brand says he had ‘exploitative’ sex with 16-year-old at height of fame

By Tristan Kirk, Press Association, Courts Editor

Russell Brand said he had “exploitative” sex with a 16-year-old girl at the height of his fame, but insists his actions were not against the law.

The comedian and actor turned podcaster, 50, is facing trial this autumn over allegations of rape and sexual assault made against him by six women.

Brand, who denies all the charges which date from 1999 to 2009, spoke about his past actions in an appearance on the YouTube show of US journalist Megyn Kelly, calling himself “selfish” and an “exploiter of women”.

He said: “In Europe and the United Kingdom, where I’m from, the age of consent is 16, and I did sleep with a 16-year-old when I was 30.

“When I was 30, I was a very different person.

“I was a lot younger, and I was an immature 30-year-old.

“Consensual sex with a lot of people, when there is a strong power differential, as there is when you are a famous man who has the ability to attract women that I had at that time, I think involves exploitation. I think it is exploitative.

“I recognise that my sexual conduct in the past was selfish and I did not apply enough consideration, barely any I suppose, really, to how that sex was affecting other people.”

Brand, who hosted Big Brother spin-off shows, had his own BBC Radio 2 programme and starred in a string of Hollywood films, is facing three charges of rape, three allegations of sexual assault, and one charge of indecent assault.

His trial at Southwark Crown Court is set to begin on October 12, when his six accusers will speak about the claims and he will in turn have the chance to give evidence.

A court has previously heard how Brand is accused of raping a woman in a hotel room while she attended a Labour Party conference in Bournemouth, grabbing a TV worker’s breasts and orally raping her after dragging her into a male toilet, and kissing and groping a radio worker after pushing her against a wall.

On the YouTube appearance, Brand – who has now converted to Christianity – suggested as a younger man he was among the “innocuous party boy-style exploiters of women”.

He said: “It’s plainly something that exists within our industry, and one might say culture at large.

“While I was transgressing lines of being as a person that was sleeping with people because I had availability to – not only by the way with waitresses and strippers and fans and people, but powerful women as well, powerful professional women that had gravitas and status and power – I was only really thinking of myself.

“I had consensual sex with lots and lots of women, and you can argue that’s not appropriate, but the age of consent is an important thing and the ability to consent is an important thing.”

He continued: “What fame gave me, and what addiction fuelled, was opportunity for endless consent, which led me to be a hedonist and a fool and an exploiter of women.

“That is wrong, and something that needs to redeemed and addressed, and atoned for.

“What I’m obviously not only querying, but violently or aggressively or assertively opposing, is the idea this is a judicial criminal matter where consent was overridden.

“Actually what happened was consent was directed. That’s what being famous and being charismatic affords you, is the ability to direct consent.

“That doesn’t mean it’s right, it’s actually not right, it’s wrong. It’s a sin, it’s an expression of selfishness and forced idolatry.”

Brand, who has a home in Buckinghamshire but now lives in the United States, is on bail from the court while he awaits his trial.