Russell Brand, facing allegations of rape and sexual assault, appeared in a London court on Friday.
Per a report from BBC News, the 49-year-old comedian has been granted bail after the brief hearing. Brand, who has denied the allegations against him, did not enter a plea and is next expected to appear in court on May 30.
In April, the Metropolitan Police Service formally announced that Brand was facing the following allegations: one count of rape, one count of indecent assault, one count of oral rape, and two counts of sexual assault. According to police, the charges are related to four different women, including an alleged rape in the Bournemouth area in 1999.
Brand addressed the charges in a video shared to social media last month in which he acknowledged his past drug and sex addictions.
“I was a fool, man,” Brand said at the time. “I was a fool before I lived in the light of the Lord. I was a drug addict, a sex addict, and an imbecile. But what I never was was a rapist. I’ve never engaged in nonconsensual activity. I pray that you can see that by looking in my eyes.”
Brand previously addressed such allegations in 2023. At the time, a joint report from The Sunday Times, The Times of London, and Channel 4’s Dispatches had been released detailing alleged assaults over the seven-year period between 2006 and 2013.
In response, Brand argued that the accusations were part of “a coordinated attack” against him. Similar to this April’s video statement, Brand also admitted to having been “very promiscuous” during the period of his life in question, although he denied that any of these relationships were nonconsensual.