British comedian and actor, Russell Brand appeared in court accused of r@ping and s£xually ass@ulting two women after fresh charges were put to him today.
The 50-year-old was not asked to enter pleas on either count, alleged to have taken place in 2009.
He has already denied five other counts of s£xual ass@ult and is due to go on trial later this year.
Florida-based Brand appeared before Westminster Magistrates’ Court via videolink this afternoon.
The charges are: one count of rape, between February 7, 2009, and March 1, 2009; and a separate count of s£xual ass@ult, between August 31, 2009, and December 1, 2009.
The complainants cannot be named because of automatic restrictions which protect alleged victims of s£xual offences from being identified.
Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring said the allegations were so serious that they could only be heard in the Crown Court.
Brand was seen on camera wearing a blue shirt, which appeared unbuttoned, during the six-minute hearing.
He spoke only to give his name as Russell Edward Brand, to confirm his date of birth, and to say ‘thank you’ at the end of the hearing.
He is due to enter pleas to the charges at the next hearing, at Southwark Crown Court on February 17.
The former actor and comedian is already facing one count each of r@pe, indecent ass@ult, and oral r@pe, as well as two counts of s£xual ass@ult, relating to four separate women.
He appeared in court in May last year and pleaded not guilty to these five counts.
The new charges relate to two additional women.
Detectives began investigating in September 2023 after receiving a number of allegations, which followed reporting by Channel 4’s Dispatches and The Sunday Times.
The original incidents are said to have occurred between 1999 and 2005.
Brand is accused of raping a woman in a hotel in 1999 after they met that day at a theatrical event following the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth.
Brand is also alleged to have r@ped a woman working in television whom he met in a Soho bar in 2004.
He is accused of grabbing her breasts before pulling the victim into a toilet and forcing her to perform a s£x act.
Another woman claims she was indecently ass@ulted by Brand, who grabbed her arm and attempted to drag her into a male lavatory at a television station in 2001.
Brand was working for Channel 4 on Big Brother’s Big Mouth between 2004 and 2005 when he is said to have carried out the final ass@ult on a radio station worker.