British police have opened a sex crimes investigation triggered by news reports about comedian Russell Brand.
London’s Metropolitan Police said on Monday that it had “received a number of allegations of sexual offences” after a television documentary and newspaper investigations. It said there have been no arrests.
Brand, 48, denies allegations of sexual assault made by four women in a Channel 4 television documentary and the Times and Sunday Times newspapers. The accusers, who have not been named, include one who said she was sexually assaulted during a relationship with him when she was 16. Another woman says Brand raped her in Los Angeles in 2012.
The police force did not name Brand in its statement, but referred to the recent articles and documentary. It said detectives were investigating allegations of “non-recent” sexual offences, both in London and elsewhere.