Russell Brand had a reputation for expecting sex from women he had just met and would turn “angry or a bit nasty” when his advances were rejected, according to a fellow comedian.
Cole Parker, who worked with Brand between 2000 and 2002, claimed models were often warned by their agents about the comedian.
Brand, 48, has strongly denied allegations of rape and sexual assault made by four women in an investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches.
He has not responded to the latest claims made in an interview aired on Friday, in which Parker told BBC’s Newsnight he was “surprised” details were not made public sooner.
“A lot of the modelling agents would sit down and tell their models, tell their stable, warn them about him,” he said.
“Things like people go back to his house and they fool around and then if they didn’t want to go all the way, he had a reputation for sometimes getting angry or a bit nasty if people wouldn’t sleep with him the first time.
“And given the fact that he was a celebrity, very good-looking man, very funny, he didn’t really need to sort of operate that way.
“There would have been plenty of people who would have been happy to get themselves involved in a dalliance with him, he didn’t have to go with people who were reluctant to do so.”
Surprised it took so long
Asked if he was surprised by the allegations, he added: “I’m surprised it didn’t come out sooner, I’m surprised at the moment that it’s only four of them.”
Parker also said he felt “let down” by the comedy industry and that if allegations Brand had a relationship with a 16-year-old had been known at the time, news would have travelled around the circuit “like wildfire”.
“Nobody knew what he was up to, nobody knew his specific dalliances, so how could anyone speak out?” he said.
The BBC is facing fresh pressure over its handling of claims against Brand, with the head of a broadcasting union saying an alleged incident, reported in 2019, should have been cause for an “in depth investigation” by the broadcaster.
The incident allegedly happened in 2008 when the woman was working in the same building as the corporation’s office in Los Angeles.
The BBC reported the comedian then pre-recorded his Radio 2 show minutes later and is heard laughing as his co-presenter Matt Morgan said it had been “25 minutes” since Brand “showed his willy to a lady”.
The woman did not make a formal complaint, according to the BBC, but management was informed about the incident in 2019.
Mr Morgan told the BBC he was “not aware until now of the nature of this encounter” and said, in a statement through his lawyer, that he condemned all forms of mistreatment of women.
“Looking back on the time I spent working on radio at the BBC, I am regretful to learn that a show I was part of made colleagues uncomfortable at times,” he added.
—AAP
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