Brand made £3k donation to rape charity year after committing offence himself

Russell Brand made a donation to a rape crisis charity in his hometown a year after committing the offence himself, it has emerged.

The donation of £3,000 was given to South Essex Rape and Incest Crisis Centre (SERICC) in the disgraced entertainer's name, to help pay for its 25th anniversary party.

The charity, based at Grays, in Thurrock, Essex, received the money in late 2010. Brand has since been convicted of raping a 21-year-old woman in 2009.

SERICC founder Sheila Coates said: "He supported four or five local charities in the area he was from, but this is really about his abuse of power, the other part of the Russell Brand personality."

The charity had no dealings with Brand directly but received the donation from his management team to help pay for a party at a venue called Orsett Hall in December 2010.

Coates added: "We were engaged in fundraising activity and wrote to lots of famous people and asked for a donation and he happened to be on the list.

"We were responded to by his management, not him, he wasn't in the country. We had no contact with him at all."

Brand was born and brought up in the area, attending Grays School, now known as the Hathaway Academy.

In 2013, he opened the Thurrock Mind charity shop in Grays.

In 2022, he campaigned to save the Thameside Theatre over concerns it would be sold off by cash-strapped Thurrock Council.

Coates said: "There is something about celebrity, money, power, control. When you get fame and money, some men abuse that position and that's what he's done.

"We've seen this so many times with famous men, it's not a shock it's disappointment and it goes on and on and on, that's the disappointment, not really the shock because we've seen this with others."

Brand is now serving a sentence of 10 years and six months after being found guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault.

Coates believed there would be "positives and negatives" after the high-profile case when it came to other victims of sexual assault coming forward.

She was concerned about "victim blaming" since the outcome, adding: "I've heard things like 'it was a long time ago', 'why didn't she report it sooner?'.

"That's all normal behaviour for victims for all sorts of logical psychological reasons.

"We still need to do some work around the myths and facts around sexual assault, all judges are supposed to do that, but I don't think all of them do, so we've got to make sure that happens so that justice is fair and victims are not blamed for their own assault."

• If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this story, information and support can be found at the BBC's Action Line

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