Russell Brand appears in court charged with further sex offences

Comedian and actor Russell Brand has appeared in a UK court via video link from the US charged with two further sexual offences, including rape.

Brand previously denied two counts of rape, one count of indecent assault and two counts of sexual assault in relation to alleged offences between 1999 and 2005, involving four women.

On Tuesday, the 50-year-old appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court via video link from the US accused of one further count of rape and one of sexual assault, which are both alleged to have taken place in 2009.

Wearing a denim shirt with a number of buttons undone, Brand spoke only to confirm his name and date of birth during the six-minute hearing.

He was granted bail to appear at Southwark Crown Court on February 17.

The two latest alleged offences took place in London, according to court documents.

A trial is scheduled to begin at Southwark Crown Court later this year in relation to the five original charges.

Brand, of Oxfordshire, is accused of raping a woman in a hotel room while she attended a Labour Party conference in Bournemouth, and grabbing a TV worker’s breasts and orally raping her after dragging her into a male toilet, the court heard in May last year.

He is also alleged to have grabbed a radio station worker’s face, pushing her against a wall and kissing her before groping her breasts and buttocks.

The other charge of the original five alleges that the actor indecently assaulted another woman after grabbing her forearm and attempting to drag her into a male toilet.

He was charged following an investigation by Channel 4 and The Sunday Times in which several women made allegations against him.

Brand presented on Big Brother spin-off shows Big Brother’s Big Mouth and Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack in the Noughties.

He was married to US pop singer Katy Perry from 2010 to 2012 but is now married to Laura Gallacher, the sister of presenter Kirsty, and the pair have two children, Mabel and Peggy.