LONDON: British police mentioned they charged actor-comedian Russell Model on Friday (Apr 4) with rape and a number of counts of assault in circumstances regarding 4 separate girls between 1999 and 2005.
The 50-year-old who was as soon as considered one of Britain’s most high-profile broadcasters and is the previous husband of US pop singer Katy Perry, denied the allegations once they first emerged in 2023 and mentioned he had by no means had non-consensual intercourse.
He couldn’t instantly be reached for touch upon Friday.
Police mentioned Model, who lives in Oxfordshire, southern England, was charged with one depend of rape, one depend of indecent assault, one depend of oral rape and two counts of sexual assault.
Model is because of seem in court docket for a primary listening to on Could 2, police mentioned.
Within the 2000s, he was an everyday on British screens, identified for his flamboyant fashion and look. He labored for the BBC and starred in quite a few movies together with Get Him to the Greek earlier than marrying Perry in 2010. They divorced 14 months later.
By the early 2020s he had pale from mainstream tradition, showing totally on his web channel the place he airs his views on US politics and free speech.
In September 2023, he returned to the headlines when the Sunday Occasions newspaper and Channel 4 TV’s documentary present “Dispatches” reported the rape allegations.
They mentioned 4 girls had accused Model of sexual assaults, together with a rape, between 2006 and 2013. London’s Met police opened a intercourse crimes investigation some weeks later.
Model mentioned then he “completely refuted” the allegations.
“These allegations pertain to the time after I was working within the mainstream, after I was within the newspapers on a regular basis, after I was within the films. And as I’ve written about extensively in my books, I used to be very, very promiscuous,” he mentioned.
“Now, throughout that point of promiscuity, the relationships I had had been completely all the time consensual.”
The police mentioned their investigation was nonetheless open.
“Detectives ask anybody who has been affected by this case, or anybody who has any info, to return ahead and converse with police,” the police assertion mentioned.
