Tag: rape

YouTube suspends Russell Brand from making money off the streaming site after sex assault claims

YouTube said Tuesday that Russell Brand will no longer make money from the video streaming site after several women made allegations of sexual assault against the comedian-turned-influencer.

YouTube said monetization of Brand’s account, which has 6.6 million subscribers, has been suspended “following serious allegations against the creator.”

“This decision applies to all channels that may be owned or operated by Russell Brand,” the Google-owned video service said.

The suspension means Brand won’t be able to earn money from the ads that run within and alongside YouTube videos, which have titles including “What REALLY Started the Hawaii Fires?” and “Covid Tsar Admits Lockdowns Were NEVER About Science.”

Other channels associated with Brand’s main YouTube page include Awakening With Russell, which has 426,000 subscribers, Football Is Nice, which has some 20,000 subscribers, and Stay Free With Russell Brand, which has 22,200 subscribers.

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Former Yale student cleared to sue accuser over false allegations

A former Yale student who was kicked out of the school in 2019 after being accused and acquitted of rape in 2018 can now sue his accuser for defamation over statements she made during a school hearing on the matter after a Connecticut Supreme Court ruling over the summer.

According to the New York Post, 30-year-old Saifullah Khan has had a $110 million defamation lawsuit pending against the school since 2019, and has been fighting to bring his accuser into the suit.

In June, the state’s supreme court granted Khan’s request, and ruled that the accuser, a fellow student, shouldn’t receive “qualified immunity” from her testimony in a school hearing that Khan raped her after a 2015 Halloween party.

Qualified immunity protects people from being sued over statements they make in judicial cases, but the court ruled that the university hearing wasn’t a stand-in court proceeding, since Khan wasn’t allowed the chance to cross-examine his accuser.

“For absolute immunity to apply under Connecticut law,” the June decision states, “fundamental fairness requires meaningful cross-examination in proceedings like the one at issue.”

Khan’s team listened during the referenced hearing to the woman’s testimony from a separate room, never being able to cross-examine her. The ruling said Khan’s defense attorney was left to act as a “potted plant.”

The court said that Yale’s hearing couldn’t be considered “quasi-judicial” because the woman wasn’t made to testify under oath, and Khan wasn’t provided with a transcript of the testimony.

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What did TV bosses hear about Russell Brand, and when were they told? The repeated warnings over controversial comic whose ‘sinister behaviour’ was an ‘open secret’ among BBC and CH4 senior executives

Repeated warnings over Russell Brand to TV bosses made his ‘sinister behaviour’ an open secret among BBC and Channel 4 executives – it has been claimed as alleged concerns reach back as far as 2004-6.

It comes amid reports that accusations about his ‘sinister’ behaviour towards women were an ‘open secret’ among TV and radio executives following a joint investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4 Dispatches.

Bosses at the BBC and Channel 4 are accused of turning a blind eye towards the entertainer while he worked for them as a presenter between 2006 and 2013. 

The broadcasters insisted they took all necessary steps to deal with him, but executives could still be called before a Government select committee where MPs will grill them over what they knew.

Channel 4 and the BBC have since launched probes into Russell Brand‘s behaviour in light of allegations of predatory behaviour towards staff and audience members in the wake of separate rape and sexual assault allegations, as friends of the comedian begin to distance themselves from him.

The first time the star’s behaviour was reported is claimed to be while he was working on EFourum and Big Brother’s Big Mouth between 2004 and 2006.

But one researcher alleges they complained about Brand pursuing audience members for sex, but their concerns were dismissed.

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Russell Brand says he is victim of ‘co-ordinated campaign’ after receiving ‘extremely disturbing letters’ from media firms outlining ‘serious criminal allegations’ as he insists all relationships were consensual as he is backed by Elon Musk and Andrew Tate

Elon Musk and Andrew Tate have backed Russell Brand‘s claims that he is a victim of a ‘co-ordinated media attack’, as the comedian took to his YouTube channel to ‘absolutely deny’ what he called ‘very serious criminal allegations’ made against him.

The video comes ahead of a much-anticipated Channel 4 Dispatches investigation set to air at 9pm tonight, with speculation building over who or what could at the centre of the investigation.

Sources said the long running current affairs documentary series will feature details about a well-known celebrity, which the Mail have been told are shocking.

There is no indication that Brand will feature in the programme, however, last night he made a video address to fans where he insisted any relationships he had ‘during his time of promiscuity’ were ‘consensual’.

Brand said he had received two ‘extremely disturbing letters’ from a ‘mainstream media TV company’ and a newspaper which the comedian said listed ‘a litany of extremely egregious and aggressive attacks, which are untrue’.

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Russell Brand accused of raping, sexually assaulting 4 women — including 16-year-old he called ‘the child’: report

Russell Brand was accused of raping, sexually assaulting and abusing four women over the course of seven years — and one victim was a 16-year-old he allegedly called “the child,” according to a bombshell report the British actor and comedian denied prior to its release.

The allegations against the 48-year-old stem from the height of his fame between 2006 and 2013, according to a joint investigation published Saturday by the Times of London and Channel 4 Dispatches.

One woman alleges the “Get Him to the Greek” star raped her against the wall of his Los Angeles home and was treated at a rape crisis center the same day, according to medical records cited by the outlets.

The woman later told Brand that she had been scared and felt taken advantage of, telling him, “When a girl [says] NO, it means no” — to which he responded he was “very sorry,” text messages cited by the report show.

Another accuser who was 16 at the time alleged that the then-31-year-old called her “the child” and assaulted her during their “emotionally abusive and controlling” three-month relationship, according to the report.

The woman — who is known only by the pseudonym “Alice” and was above the age of consent in the UK — said Brand was “grooming” her, an allegation a relative backed up to the Sunday Times during its investigation.

Alice said he told her to read Vladimir Nabokov’s salacious “Lolita,” save his number in her phone under the name “Carly” and even gave her “scripts” to lie to her parents.

“It was isolating,” she told the outlet.

Brand allegedly even sent a car to take Alice out of school and to his home, she said. On one occasion, his driver told her not to go into the comedian’s home.

“‘Please. I’m asking you not to go in there. You could be my little girl, and I would want someone to do this for her,” Alice recalled the chauffer saying.

Alice also accused Brand of once making her choke when he “forced his penis down her throat” and she allegedly punched him in the stomach to get him to stop.

A third accuser claimed the “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” star sexually assaulted her when she worked with him in Hollywood and threatened legal action against her if she went public with the allegations, and a fourth alleged victim said she was sexually assaulted and physically and emotionally abused by him, the outlets reported.

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Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis Wrote Letters in Support of Danny Masterson Prior to 30 Year Sentence for Rape

Hollywood couple Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis wrote letters of support for their That ’70s Show co-star Danny Masterson as he awaited sentencing after being convicted of raping two women nearly 20 years ago.

The letters, which were reported by Good Morning America and obtained by independent journalist Tony Ortega, were ostensibly designed to minimize Masterson’s prison time but don’t appear to have worked since the actor was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison, which was the expected maximum prison term for the case.

Ashton Kutcher’s letter emphasized the positive influence Masterson had on Kutcher during their time together on the long-running Fox sitcom That ’70s Show.

“As a role model, Danny has consistently been an excellent one,” Kutcher wrote, according to a copy obtained by Ortega. “I attribute not falling into the typical Hollywood life of drugs directly to Danny. Any time that we were to meet someone or interact with someone who was on drugs, or did drugs, he made it clear that that wouldn’t be a good person to be friends with.”

He added: “I do not believe he is an ongoing harm to society and having his daughter raised without a present father would a tertiary injustice in and of itself.”

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North Texas Educator Charged with Sex Crimes Against Multiple Students

A North Texas educator has been accused of sex crimes involving multiple students.

The Arlington Police Department arrested Anthony Rashad Hawkins, 25, on Tuesday in Grand Prairie.

Police say Hawkins is a former employee of Sam Houston High School in Arlington Independent School District.

Hawkins was charged with three counts of improper relationship between educator and student—forcible rape and two counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact. All are second-degree felonies punishable by two to 20 years in prison.

According to Arlington police, detectives with APD’s Crimes Against Children Unit initiated an investigation on August 23, after school administrators were made aware of the allegations and immediately reported them to authorities.

Through the course of their investigation, detectives identified three victims.

Hawkins was booked into the Arlington City Jail on September 5 and released on a $100,000 bond ($20,000 for each offense).

State records show that Hawkins does not hold a Texas teaching certificate.

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Federal Prison Guards Confessed to Rape and Got Away With It

Ron Berman agonizes over how to tell this story, where even to start, because the short version doesn’t capture the full travesty and the long version is overwhelming. But here’s the crux of it: A group of federal prison guards raped his daughter and got away with it. Not only did they get away with it, but they got away with it even after they admitted they did it.

Berman’s daughter, Carleane, was one of at least a dozen women who were abused by corrupt correctional officers at FCC Coleman, a federal prison complex in Florida. In December, a Senate investigation revealed that those correctional officers had admitted in sworn interviews with internal affairs investigators that they had repeatedly raped women under their control.

Yet thanks to a little known Supreme Court precedent and a culture of corrupt self-protection inside the prison system, none of those guards were ever prosecuted—precisely because of the manner in which they confessed.

Most of the guards retired before they could be fired, meaning they walked with their retirement benefits intact. Over the last five years, Berman’s daughter and the rest of those women were failed by nearly everyone around them at every level of government.

Berman has been emailing and calling everyone he can think of—his congressional representatives, the FBI, federal prosecutors, local prosecutors, the county sheriff, reporters—trying to get justice for his daughter.

“It’s not the system that failed her,” he says. “It’s the people.”

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Billionaire Raped Teenager Inside Jeffrey Epstein’s Mansion: Lawsuit

A billionaire raped a teenager inside Jeffrey Epstein’s mansion in New York City, according to a new lawsuit.

Leon Black, the billionaire, raped the girl when she was just 16 inside Mr. Epstein’s residence on the Upper East Side, the civil suit alleges.

The girl, whose name has not been made public and is using the pseudonym Jane Doe, was allegedly instructed, and did, on multiple occasions give Mr. Epstein a massage that included sexual intercourse.

After learning the girl would follow instructions, Mr. Epstein often handed her off to other men to do the same, according to the suit, including at Mr. Epstein’s homes in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Palm Beach, Florida.

In 2002, the girl was transported to Mr. Epstein’s New York City home, where she was introduced to Mr. Epstein’s “special friend” Mr. Black, according to the suit. Mr. Epstein was quoted as telling the girl to give Mr. Black the same kind of “massage treatment” that she had given him.

Mr. Black allegedly violently assaulted the girl before raping her. He is accused of laughing at the girl’s attempts to flee from him.

The suit is not being linked because it contains graphic descriptions of what allegedly occurred.

“Although Epstein trafficked Plaintiff to other men, both before and after Black, she was never again taken to NYC. The violent and sadistic nature of Black’s rape left an indelible mark on her, both physically and psychologically. Plaintiff suffered internal abrasions in her rectum that continue to cause her pain,” the suit states.

“Sadly, Ms. Doe’s experience is one more in a long line of despicable and heinous experiences inflicted on a minor trapped in Jeffrey Epstein’s web—a web that extended to a group of powerful and influential men, including Leon Black,” it also says.

The suit was brought under a New York law that enables victims of sexual abuse to bring claims by the end of 2025 for older incidents.

It asks the court for damages.

“This is a frivolous and sanctionable lawsuit. Mr. Black has never met this individual. These vicious and defamatory lies, masquerading as allegations, have been intentionally manufactured by the Wigdor law firm as part of the firm’s vendetta against Mr. Black for vigorously and successfully defending himself over the past two years. Wigdor’s prior case against Mr. Black was recently thrown out by the Court and this one will be too,” Susan Estrich, a lawyer representing Mr. Black, told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement.

In response, Jeanne Christensen, a lawyer with Wigdor who is representing the plaintiff, told The Epoch Times in an email: “Black’s conspiracy theories and finger pointing are an obvious attempt to shift the focus away from his heinous acts. I do not think anyone will be fooled by such nonsense.”

Mr. Epstein, a convicted sex offender, was set to go on trial for sex trafficking of minors and other charges when he died in 2019. His death was ruled a suicide.

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Chicago police investigating whether cops had improper sexual contact with immigrants, including teen who was allegedly impregnated

Chicago police are investigating accusations that a group of officers had improper sexual contact with newly arrived immigrants.

One of the officers, assigned to the Ogden District, covering Lawndale and Little Village, has been accused of impregnating a teenage girl, law enforcement sources said Thursday.

Multiple other officers are accused of engaging in sexual acts with immigrants.

A police spokesperson said the department’s Bureau of Internal Affairs and the city’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability are investigating. 

As the city has struggled to accommodate an influx of new arrivals being sent from the southern U.S. border, controversy has brewed over the decision to temporarily house many of them at police stations.

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