A former employee assaulted by Russell Brand in 2009 told Southwark Crown Court that Channel 4 failed to investigate her complaint.
A former Channel 4 employee sexually assaulted by Russell Brand told a London court on Monday that senior network management ignored her complaint after she reported the incident in 2009. Deadline reported that the woman’s victim impact statement was read out at Southwark Crown Court during Brand’s sentencing proceedings.
On Monday, Russell Brand was sentenced to 10 and a half years in prison for sexual offenses against four women. A jury reached that outcome the previous week, when he was found guilty of rape and sexual assault following a trial in London.
Allegations of executive inaction
In her impact statement, read by Crown Prosecution Service prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones, the survivor said she told her line manager about the assault the day after it took place during a shoot for the network. She stated that the matter was never escalated to upper management.
“Immediately after the incident I spoke up, and sadly it was brushed under the carpet by senior management,” the woman said in her statement, according to reporting by Variety. She said the workplace environment led her to feel that she had to keep quiet and carry on with her job.
The woman, who holds a lifelong legal right to anonymity, said the assault permanently changed how she worked. She told the court she lost trust in others and felt that her working environment wasn’t safe. From that point on, she made sure she didn’t sit in a room alone and ensured a colleague accompanied her whenever she met people she didn’t know.
Details of the 2009 assault
The assault occurred while Brand hosted the Channel 4 show Big Brother’s Big Mouth. During a production shoot, two male companions directed the woman to give Brand a massage. As she pressed her thumbs into his shoulders and remarked on his frame, Brand pushed his face into her groin and made crude remarks.
Justice Bennathan referenced the incident during sentencing, describing it as an example of Brand’s arrogance and noting that his entourage indulged his behavior. Bennathan said Brand’s associates laughed when the woman remarked on his bony shoulders before Brand jumped up and shouted childish, sexualized insults at her.
During the Monday hearing, Karmy-Jones argued that the two men in Brand’s entourage facilitated the assault. Justice Bennathan intervened to state that they facilitated the massage, a distinction Karmy-Jones accepted.
Fallout for production figures
The two men identified in court as part of Brand’s entourage were comedy producer Jack Bayles and Gareth Roy. Bayles, who serves as head of comedy at production company Various Artists Limited, announced after the verdicts that he was stepping back from his position until further notice.
Bayles said he had no recollection of the 2009 assault. “I clearly missed something at the time and did not see nor recognise that it caused distress. For that I am sincerely sorry,” he said, adding that he was sickened by Brand’s actions and cooperated fully with the investigation.
Following the trial, Bayles lost his roles on several television projects. He was removed from the Apple TV series The Choir, created by James Corden and Ruth Jones, along with the third season of the BBC comedy Such Brave Girls and another BBC production called Push.
Scrutiny and network investigations
Andy Duncan served as chief executive of Channel 4 at the time of the 2009 incident before stepping down in November of that year. In 2024, Channel 4 issued an apology to the woman after an internal inquiry examined whether network executives knew about Brand’s conduct.
The broadcaster said in 2024 that the woman’s report wasn’t passed up the senior management chain or investigated under the procedures in place at the time. Channel 4 also acknowledged communication delays during its 2023 investigation and apologized for the distress the former employee experienced.
In 2023, Channel 4’s documentary strand Dispatches and The Sunday Times broadcast a joint investigation detailing sexual assault allegations against Brand by multiple women. None of the women from that broadcast took part in the criminal trial, though one is believed to be assisting police with further inquiries into other incidents.
Channel 4 stated last week that its thoughts were with the six women involved in Brand’s case and commended their courage in giving evidence. Four women submitted victim impact statements on Monday, including one who said she received death threats after testifying against Brand.
