Shamed former comedian Russell Brand, 51, was jailed this week following his reign of terror, during which he raped a fan and sexually assaulted three other women
Sex predator Russell Brand made a donation to a rape crisis charity in his hometown months after committing the offence himself, it has emerged.
Brand — jailed this week for his reign of terror — handed over £3,000 to South Essex Rape and Incest Crisis Centre (SERICC) to help pay for its 25th anniversary party. The charity, based at Grays, in Thurrock, Essex, received the money in late 2010, the following year after Brand raped a a 21-year-old fan at his Hampstead mansion. They had met at his 2009 stand-up show at Hammersmith Apollo, west London.
SERICC founder Sheila Coates told the BBC: “He supported four or five local charities in the area he was from, but this is really about his abuse of power, the other part of the Russell Brand personality.” The charity had no dealings with Brand directly but received the donation from his management team to help pay for a party at a venue called Orsett Hall in December 2010.
Mrs Coates added: “We were engaged in fundraising activity and wrote to lots of famous people and asked for a donation and he happened to be on the list. We were responded to by his management, not him, he wasn’t in the country. We had no contact with him at all.”
Brand was born and brought up in the area, attending Grays School, now known as the Hathaway Academy. In 2013, he opened the Thurrock Mind charity shop in Grays. In 2022, he campaigned to save the Thameside Theatre over concerns it would be sold off by cash-strapped Thurrock Council.
Coates said: “There is something about celebrity, money, power, control. When you get fame and money, some men abuse that position and that’s what he’s done. We’ve seen this so many times with famous men, it’s not a shock it’s disappointment and it goes on and on and on, that’s the disappointment, not really the shock because we’ve seen this with others.”
During Brand’s harrowing sentencing hearing on Monday, his then 21-year-old victim said the impact was so severe she had to take time off work and return to live with her parents. She said she carries the trauma “every day and it often feels never-ending”.
The woman added: “I hope the court can understand the large and overarching impact this has had on me, and continues to have on me to this day.” Jurors heard the offences took place when Brand’s “public profile was taking off”.
He also sexually assaulted a Channel 4 worker in 2009 after she was forced to give him a massage and “sloppily” kissed a Capital Radio worker at her offices. The predator was further convicted of groping an MTV worker during a party at a Soho bar in 2004. She said she was “extremely upset and traumatised” by the attack.
She also told how she has received death threats from Brand’s “manic supporters” and feels like her life was “on hold” while she waited to speak out. The woman added: “For many years as his star was rising it was impossible to escape seeing him all over the media, being celebrated for his disgusting behaviour against women like it was all a joke.
“There were many times I felt visibly sick at the sight of him parading around think he can get away with anything.” Another victim told how Brand sexually assaulting her at a radio station in 2005 had a “lasting impact” on her life.
She added: “Russell Brand has managed to move on and even forget that he sexually assaulted me violently in a very public place and in front of people.” The victim also said Brand is a “sexual predator who has no remorse for how his behaviour has impacted my life”. She continued: “I just hope that he is not allowed to hurt any more women.”
Brand is now serving a sentence of 10 years and six months after being found guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault. Mrs Coates believed there would be “positives and negatives” after the high-profile case when it came to other victims of sexual assault coming forward.
She was concerned about “victim blaming” since the outcome, adding: “I’ve heard things like ‘it was a long time ago’, ‘why didn’t she report it sooner?’. That’s all normal behaviour for victims for all sorts of logical psychological reasons.
“We still need to do some work around the myths and facts around sexual assault, all judges are supposed to do that, but I don’t think all of them do, so we’ve got to make sure that happens so that justice is fair and victims are not blamed for their own assault.”
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