Russell Brand news: Met Police receives report of alleged sexual assault

The Metropolitan Police has received a report of an alleged sexual assault in Soho, central London in 2003 following a number of accusations that have been made against comedian Russell Brand.

A spokesperson for the Met confirmed officers are “in contact with” a woman who reported the alleged sexual assault to the force on Sunday after Brand was accused of rape, sexual assaults and emotionally abusing four women between 2006 and 2013.

This comes after a woman who was allegedly in an abusive relationship with Brand when she was aged 16 claimed that BBC cars collected her from school to meet the comedian. In the interview with BBC Woman’s Hour, she also alleged Brand’s management had suggested they pretend she was his goddaughter.

Since the publication on Saturday of their joint investigation with Channel 4’s Dispatches, The Times and The Sunday Times claimed that several other women have come forward with allegations against Brand, with those now being “rigorously checked”.

The BBC and Channel 4 have pledged to investigate claims made about the former presenter, while Channel 4 has removed all programmes linked to Brand from its website.

The comedian has vehemently denied the “very serious criminal allegations” and said his relationships were “absolutely always consensual”. His father, Ron Brand, has also jumped to his defence, describing the allegations as a “vendetta”.

If you have information in relation to the allegations against Russell Brand which you would like to share with The Independent’s reporting team, please email newsdesk@independent.co.uk