“Okay, so I’m going to say, ‘Where’s the evidence,’ and then you’re going to present some evidence, and then I’m going to say, ‘Innocent until proven guilty!’ and then you’re going to explain that only applies directly to criminal trials, and then I’m just going to make a violent threat against you.”
London — Police in London on Monday said they had received a report of alleged sexual assault after media revelations about the British comedian and actor Russell Brand. A joint investigation by The Times, Sunday Times and Channel 4 television on Saturday published claims from four women of rape, sexual assaults and emotional abuse against Brand.
Brand, 48, strongly denied the allegations, stemming from incidents which are said to have taken place between 2006 and 2013, in a video statement released Friday night.
He maintained that his relationships have always been “consensual,” even during a period when he admitted being “very, very promiscuous.”
Russell Brand poses for photographs as he arrives to deliver The Reading Agency Lecture at The Institute of Education on November 25, 2014 in London, England.
Carl Court/Getty
The Times and Sunday Times on Monday said more women had come forward to make claims about his behavior in the early 2000s, without giving further details.
The revelations come amid criticism of how sexual assault cases are handled in the criminal justice system in the U.K., as well as how media organizations have handled similar accusations of inappropriate behavior by big-name stars. One of the organizations hit hardest by such allegations has been the Metropolitan Police itself, after a serving officer was convicted of the 2021 rape and murder of a young woman in London.
In a short statement, the Metropolitan Police said: “On Sunday September 17, the Met received a report of a sexual assault which was alleged to have taken place in Soho in central London in 2003,” adding that police were “in contact with the woman and will be providing her with support.”
The force said it had been in touch with the newspapers and the documentary makers at Channel 4 “to ensure that anyone who believes they have been the victim of a sexual offense is aware of how to report this to the police.”
Brand’s former employers the BBC and Channel 4, as well as a production company, have launched their own investigations into the claims.
According to the newspapers and the documentary, Brand allegedly raped one woman in his Los Angeles home. Another claims that he assaulted her during a three-month relationship when she was 16 and still at school.
Brand became known internationally as the former husband of pop star Katy Perry after forging a career as a stand-up comedian, with near-the-knuckle routines, often about drugs and sex.
He presented on television reality shows and played rock star Aldous Snow in the 2008 film “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” and its 2010 sequel “Get Him to the Greek.”
In recent years he has become a prominent conspiracy theorist, using his YouTube channel to question the COVID-19 pandemic to his nearly seven million followers. He has argued that the global pandemic was a cover-up by the global elite to enforce radical social change.
The 48-year-old comedian, actor and social influencer performed at a sold-out stand-up show at the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre in northwest London as part of his Bipolarisation tour.
After arriving late due to traffic, Brand thanked his fans for showing up and said there were certain topics he couldn’t discuss, alluding to the allegations, BBC News reported.
“I really appreciate your support, I love you, and I want to do a fantastic show for you,” he told the crowd of 2,000 people. “I’ve got a lot of things to talk to you about. There are obviously some things that I absolutely cannot talk about, and I appreciate that you will understand.”
His appearance came hours after three British news organizations reported that Brand has been accused of rape, sexual assault and abuse based on allegations from four women who knew him for over seven years at the height of his fame.
The Sunday Times, The Times of London and Channel 4’s “Dispatches” said that one woman alleged she had been raped and three others accused him of sexual assault. One of the women also said he had been physically and emotionally abusive.
Before the stories were published, Brand denied the allegations and said that all of his relationships have been consensual.
“Amidst this litany of astonishing, rather baroque attacks are some very serious allegations that I refute,” Brand said in a statement. “These allegations pertain to the time when I was working in the mainstream when I was in the newspapers all the time when I was in the movies, and, as I have written about extensively in my books, I was very, very promiscuous.”
“Now during that time of promiscuity the relationships I had were absolutely, always consensual,” he added. “I was always transparent about that then, almost too transparent, and I am being transparent about it now as well.”
Brand also suggested that the reports were part of a coordinated attack designed to discredit him because of his views. Brand has been criticized for expressing skepticism about COVID-19 vaccines and interviewing contentious podcasters like Joe Rogan.
On Sunday, the BBC, Channel 4 and a production firm said they would be investigating the allegations that took place during Brand’s time as a presenter on BBC Radio’s 6 Music and Radio 2, and as a host for shows on Channel 4.
The BBC said it was “urgently looking into the issues raised,” and Channel 4 announced an internal investigation.
While none of the alleged assaults were said to have taken place on BBC or Channel 4 premises, there have been multiple claims about Brand’s workplace behavior, the BBC reported.
London’s Metropolitan Police on Sunday said it was aware of news reports about a series of sexual assault allegations but had not directly received any reports relating to the allegations.
“If anyone believes they have been the victim of a sexual assault, no matter how long ago it happened, we would encourage them to contact police,” Metropolitan Police communications officer Callum Jones said, adding that the department was in touch with the Sunday Times and Channel 4.
Also on Sunday, the talent agency Tavistock Wood said it had terminated all ties with Brand.
“Russell Brand categorically and vehemently denied the allegation made in 2020, but we now believe we were horribly misled by him,” the agency said in a statement.
Brand rose to fame as a stand-up comic in Britain in the early 2000s, earning starring roles on Channel 4 and BBC Radio, where he capitalized on his reputation for outrageous behavior and risque banter.
He later made the jump to Hollywood, appearing in films such as “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” in 2008 and the remake of “Arthur” in 2011. Brand was married to pop star Katy Perry from 2010-2012.
Three British news organizations reported Saturday that comedian and social influencer Russell Brand has been accused of rape, sexual assault and abuse based on allegations from four women who knew him over a seven-year period at the height of his fame. Brand denied the allegations and said that all of his relationships have been consensual.
The Sunday Times, The Times of London and Channel 4’s “Dispatches” said that one woman alleged she had been raped, while three others accused him of sexual assault. One of the women also said he had been physically and emotionally abusive.
The women said that they only felt ready to tell their stories after being approached by reporters, with some citing Brand’s newfound prominence as an online wellness influencer as a factor in their decision to speak.
Russell Brand takes part in a discussion at Esquire Townhouse, Carlton House Terrace on Oct. 14, 2017, in London, England.
Jeff Spicer/Getty Images
Before the stories were published, Brand posted a video online denying the allegations, which had been outlined in two “extremely disturbing letters” from a “mainstream media” television company and a newspaper. He didn’t identify the news organizations by name.
“Amidst this litany of astonishing, rather baroque attacks are some very serious allegations that I absolutely refute,” he said. “These allegations pertain to the time when I was working in the mainstream, when I was in the newspapers all the time, when I was in the movies and, as I have written about extensively in my books, I was very, very promiscuous.”
“Now during that time of promiscuity the relationships I had were absolutely, always consensual,” he added. “I was always transparent about that then, almost too transparent, and I am being transparent about it now as well.”
Brand also suggested that the reports were part of a coordinated attack designed to discredit him because of his views. Brand has been criticized for expressing skepticism about COVID-19 vaccines and interviewing contentious podcasters like Joe Rogan.
“To see that transparency metastasized into something criminal, that I absolutely deny, makes me question is there another agenda at play,” Brand said.
Brand rose to fame as a stand-up comic in Britain in the early 2000s, which led to starring roles on Channel 4 and later BBC Radio, where he capitalized on a reputation for outrageous behavior and risque banter.
He later made the jump to Hollywood, appearing in films such as “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” in 2008 and the remake of “Arthur” in 2011. Brand was married to U.S. pop star Katy Perry from 2010-2012.
In recent years, he transformed himself into a political commentator and influencer posting YouTube videos on subjects such as personal freedom and the COVID-19 pandemic.
NEW YORK—As part of an effort to take a more public approach to addressing an issue that has plagued the league in recent years, the NFL introduced touching flyover tributes this week for all veterans of domestic violence. “We know that our fans and the rest of the NFL community look to us for leadership, and we believe these flyovers are the best way to honor the victims and perpetrators of domestic violence,” said NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, adding that the league was pleased with the half-dozen spectacles in which supersonic jets flew over stadiums while planes with banners reading “The NFL Stands with Rape Victims and Rapists” circled in the air. “Many of our players have been involved in domestic disputes that have led to violence, and we believe we should honor that. Many of these families have dealt with domestic violence over and over again, and they deserve some recognition after their years of service to a part of the league that we hold near and dear to our hearts.” The NFL added that it would also begin airing commercials during games featuring former players, as well as victims of sexual assault, speaking out against and also for domestic violence.
Acting couple Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis on Saturday took to social media to address some of the criticism they have received for sending letters of support to the Los Angeles judge overseeing the Danny Masterson rape case ahead of Masterson’s sentencing.
Masterson was sentenced Thursday to 30 years to life in prison after being found guilty in June of raping two women at his Hollywood Hills home about two decades ago.
Kutcher, Kunis and Masterson were co-stars on the hit sitcom “That ’70s Show” from 1998 to 2006. Masterson later starred with Kutcher in the Netflix comedy series “The Ranch,” which ran for four season from 2016 to 2020. However, Masterson only appeared in the first three seasons, and was fired from the show in December 2017 after the rape allegations surfaced.
“A couple months ago, Danny’s family reached out to us and they asked us to write character letters to represent the person that we knew for 25 years, so that the judge could take that into full consideration relative to the sentencing,” Kutcher explained in a video posted to Instagram.
“We are aware of the pain that has been caused by the character letters that we wrote on behalf of Danny Masterson,” he added.
Kutcher and Kunis were among nearly 50 of Masterson’s colleagues, relatives and friends who wrote letters on his behalf asking for leniency in his sentencing.
In his letter to L.A. County Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo, Kutcher called Masterson a “role model” and “an extraordinarily honest and intentional human being” who “set an extraordinary standard around how you treat other people.”
Kutcher also wrote that he believes Masterson is not an ongoing harm to society and that the accused actor is one of the few people he would trust to be alone with his children.
In her letter, Kunis said she could “wholeheartedly vouch for Danny Masterson’s exceptional character” and said she could “sense his innate goodness” from the first time she met him.
Despite these character references, Olmedo still gave Masterson the maximum allowable sentence.
In Saturday’s message, Kutcher and Kunis said they did not mean to discount the trauma and experiences of Masterson’s victims.
“The letters were not written to question the legitimacy of the judicial system or the validity of the jury’s ruling,” Kunis said. “We support victims.”
“They were intended for the judge to read and not to undermine the testimony of the victims or retraumatize them in any way,” Kutcher added. “And we’re sorry if that has taken place.”
Kunis ended the video acknowledging victims of sexual violence, saying: “Our heart goes out to every single person who has ever been a victim of sexual assault, sexual abuse or rape.”
Acting couple Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis issued an apology on social media Saturday for sending letters of support to the Los Angeles judge overseeing the Danny Masterson rape case ahead of Masterson’s sentencing.
Masterson was sentenced Thursday to 30 years to life in prison after being found guilty in June of raping two women at his Hollywood Hills home about two decades ago.
Kutcher, Kunis and Masterson were co-stars on the hit sitcom “That ’70s Show” from 1998 to 2006. Masterson later starred with Kutcher in the Netflix comedy series “The Ranch,” which ran for four season from 2016 to 2020. However, Masterson only appeared in the first three seasons, and was fired off the show in December 2017 after the rape allegations surfaced.
“A couple months ago, Danny’s family reached out to us and they asked us to write character letters to represent the person that we knew for 25 years, so that the judge could take that into full consideration relative to the sentencing,” Kutcher explained in a video posted to Instagram.
“We are aware of the pain that has been caused by the character letters that we wrote on behalf of Danny Masterson,” he added.
Kutcher and Kunis were among nearly 50 of Masterson’s colleagues, relatives and friends who wrote letters on his behalf asking for leniency in his sentencing.
In his letter to L.A. County Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo, Kutcher called Masterson a “role model” and “an extraordinarily honest and intentional human being” who “set an extraordinary standard around how you treat other people.”
Kutcher also wrote that he believes Masterson is not an ongoing harm to society and that the accused actor is one of the few people he would trust to be alone with his children.
In her letter, Kunis said she could “wholeheartedly vouch for Danny Masterson’s exceptional character” and said she could “sense his innate goodness” from the first time she met him.
Despite these character references, Olmedo still gave Masterson the maximum allowable sentence.
In Saturday’s apology, Kutcher and Kunis said they did not mean to discount the trauma and experiences of Masterson’s victims.
“The letters were not written to question the legitimacy of the judicial system or the validity of the jury’s ruling,” Kunis said. “We support victims.”
“They were intended for the judge to read and not to undermine the testimony of the victims or retraumatize them in any way,” Kutcher added. “And we’re sorry if that has taken place.”
Kunis ended the video acknowledging victims of sexual violence, saying: “Our heart goes out to every single person who has ever been a victim of sexual assault, sexual abuse or rape.”
Actor Danny Masterson, best known for his role in the sitcom “That ’70s Show,” was sentenced in a Los Angeles courtroom Thursday to 30 years to life in prison after being convicted of drugging and raping two women in 2003. Carter Evans reports.
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But to many observers on social media, that’s exactly what the Fulton County district attorney was doing.
Writer E. Jean Carroll accused Trump of raping her in a Manhattan department store in a lawsuit, and a jury found him liable for sexual abuse. A judge this month rejected Trump’s defamation counterclaim, saying Carroll’s insistence in a post-verdict TV interview that Trump raped her was “substantially true.”
“Mr. Trump did in fact ’rape’ Ms. Carroll as that term commonly is used and understood in contacts outside of the New York Penal Law,” Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote in tossing Trump’s suit.
All of this seemed to have escaped Trump diehard Greene as she blathered on about the fourth indictment against Trump ― the second for plotting to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.
Greene criticized the crime rate of Atlanta (which is in Fulton County) and said the state of Georgia was rife with predators and traffickers.
“Fani Willis should be going after murderers, rapists, car theft,” she said on Newsmax.
MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan led the charge to rebut Greene, joking: “Who wants to tell her?”
“She is,” media personality and former prosecutor Ron Filipkowski wrote of Willis.
Bucharest, Romania — Andrew Tate, the divisive internet influencer who is charged in Romania with rape, human trafficking, and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women, won an appeal on Friday to be released from house arrest and will instead be put under judicial control measures, his spokesperson said.
The Reuters news agency quoted a written ruling by the Bucharest Court of Appeals as saying that it “replaces the house arrest measure with that of judicial control for a period of 60 days from August 4 until October 2.”
The exact restrictions that Tate will face were not immediately made public, and the investigation into his alleged crimes continued.
Controversial influencer Andrew Tate (C) arrives at the Municipal Court of Bucharest, Romania, in a June 21, 2023 file photo.
DANIEL MIHAILESCU/AFP/Getty
The Bucharest court’s decision came after prosecutors formally indicted 36-year-old Tate in June, along with his brother Tristan and two Romanian women, in the same case. All four were arrested in late December near Bucharest and have denied the allegations against them.
Romania’s Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT), has accused the four defendants of forming an organized crime group to carry out human trafficking in Romania, the U.K. and in the U.S.
DIICOT has said seven alleged victims were recruited by two of the defendants and misled about their romantic intentions. The alleged victims were then moved to houses where they were intimidated verbally and with acts of physical violence, and sexually exploited, according to DIICOT.
The agency says one of the defendents, who BBC News named as Andrew Tate, repeatedly raped one of the alleged victims. The BBC said a Romanian judge had 60 days to inspect the case and that the trial would likely take years. No start date for the proceedings was announced.
Tate, a former boxer and martial artist, is best-known for spreading hate speech, misogyny and violence on social media. He was banned by both Facebook and Instagram in August 2022 for violating parent company Meta’s policies on dangerous organizations and individuals, and has also been banned from posting videos on YouTube.
He was suspended by Twitter in 2017 but reinstated on the platform after Elon Musk took ownership of the company last year.
A man believed to be American fugitive Nicholas Alahverdian, who allegedly faked his own death to avoid rape and fraud charges in the U.S. and was later arrested in the U.K., where he’s known by the alias Nicholas Rossi, can be extradited back to the U.S, a court in Scotland ruled on Wednesday. The man, who denies being 35-year-old Alahverdian, was arrested in December 2021 at a Glasgow hospital where he was being treated for COVID-19.
The defendant leaving Edinburgh Sheriff and Justice Of The Peace Court on Wednesday, November 9, 2022.
Jane Barlow/PA Images via Getty Images
In a hearing at the Edinburgh Sheriff Court, judge Norman McFadyen ruled that Rossi, as the Scottish court refers to him, could be extradited. The judge’s ruling sends the case to Scottish government ministers to make a final decision on the extradition.
In November 2022, the same judge ruled that the man claiming to be Knight was indeed Alahverdian. After seeing evidence including fingerprints and tattoos, McFadyen told the Edinburgh court he was “ultimately satisfied on the balance of probabilities… that Mr. Knight is indeed Nicholas Rossi, the person sought for extradition by the United States.”
The suspect, who’s reportedly been known by at accused authorities of tattooing him while he was in a coma so that he would resemble the wanted man, and of surreptitiously taking his fingerprints to frame him. In recent months, he has appeared in several bizarre television interviews alongside his wife.
“We were once a normal family, but thanks to the media our lives have been interrupted,” he told NBC in April, gasping into an oxygen mask in an unrecognizable accent. “We’d like privacy and I would like to go back to being a normal husband, but I can’t because I can’t breathe, I can’t walk.”
Nicholas Rossi, aka Nicolas Alahverdian, leaves the Edinburgh Sheriff Court after judge Norman McFadyen confirmed his identity as the man who has been fighting extradition to the U.S. on charges involving identity theft and fraud, and a 2008 sexual assault charge in Utah, November 11, 2022.
Andrew Milligan/PA Images/Getty
When asked if he was lying about his identity, he exclaimed: “I am not Nicholas Alahverdian! I do not know how to make this clearer!”
Last year, judge McFayden called Rossi’s claims “fanciful” and “implausible.”
U.S. authorities have always said that Rossi and Knight are the same man, Alahverdian, who was charged in connection with a 2008 rape in Utah.
Alahverdian is also wanted by authorities in Rhode Island for failing to register as a sex offender in that state. The FBI has said he also faces fraud charges in Ohio, where he was also convicted of sex-related charges in 2008.
Before leaving the U.S., Alahverdian had become an outspoken critic of Rhode Island’s Department of Children, Youth and Families, testifying before state lawmakers about being sexually abused and tortured while in foster care.
In 2020, he told local media that he had late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma and had only weeks to live.
An obituary published online claimed that he had died on February 29, 2020, but by last year, Rhode Island State Police, Alahverdian’s former lawyer and his former foster family were casting public doubt over his purported death.
Since his arrest in Scotland, the suspect has made several court appearances and fired at least six lawyers — all while insisting that he isn’t Nicholas Rossi or Nicholas Alahverdian.
American actor Kevin Spacey was found not guilty Wednesday of all the sexual assault charges he was facing in a U.K. trial. The actor had faced nine sexual offense charges related to incidents reported by four men that allegedly took place between 2001 and 2013.
The Academy Award-winning actor had pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.
Spacey, 64, was acquitted in London’s Southwark Crown Court of charges including sexual assault, causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent and causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity.
Actor Kevin Spacey leaves Southwark Crown Court after he was found not guilty on charges related to allegations of sexual offenses, in London, July 26, 2023.
Reuters/Susannah Ireland
All four of the alleged victims — who can’t be named under U.K. law — testified during the trial, as did Spacey himself, who said he was crushed by the allegations.
In their testimony, the four men described Spacey a “sexual bully” and a predator.
Spacey starred in the Netflix series “House of Cards” until he was fired in 2017 after fellow actor Anthony Rapp accused him of prior sexual misconduct. A civil jury in Massachusetts later found him not liable on those allegations.
Note: Some of the details in this story are disturbing.
A viral video of a horrific sexual assault in India forced police to act after they’d failed to respond to the victims’ complaints over two months. Several men had paraded two naked women publicly and gangraped at least one of them.
It took the disturbing video, which many said put the whole country to shame, for police and the government to act and for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to break his silence on an underlying ethnic conflict that has claimed more than 140 lives and displaced some 60,000 people.
Police in the small northeastern Indian state of Manipur, which has witnessed deadly ethnic clashes and widespread violence for two months, finally arrested six men over the last few days for publicly parading the two women, reportedly in the presence of police, and allegedly raping at least one of them.
The video shows a frenzied mob of men carrying knives and sticks in their hands walking two naked women on a road and onto an agricultural field, with some men groping them on the way.
The incident happened on May 4, during the early days of the ethnic clashes in Manipur. The two women, along with the father and brother of one of them, were trying to escape after their village was attacked and burned down by an armed mob of hundreds.
The mob intercepted them. First, they killed the two men, then sexually assaulted at least one of the two women.
The gruesome incident went unreported until the video finally made its way onto social media last week, shocking this country of 1.42 billion people and attracting international attention.
The video sparked widespread protests and led to thousands expressing anger on social media, terming it “disgusting,” “shameful” and “shocking” and urging the government to bring the attackers to justice.
A demonstrator holds up a placard on July 23, 2023 as police officers detain others during a protest against the alleged sexual assault of two tribal women in the eastern state of Manipur, in Ahmedabad, India.
AMIT DAVE / REUTERS
One of the two women in the video later claimed in an interview with the Indian news outlet Scroll that the attackers told her, “If you don’t take off your clothes, we’ll kill you.”
Modi called the incident “shameful.”
“The Manipur incident is shameful for any civilized nation; the entire country has been shamed,” Modi said Thursday. “I assure the nation the law will take its course with all its might. What happened with the daughters of Manipur can never be forgiven.”
Women put burning bales of hay in house of the accused in a viral video case, in Manipur, India, on July 20, 2023, in this screengrab obtained from a handout video.
ASIAN NEWS INTERNATIONAL / Reuters
India’s Supreme Court said it was “deeply disturbed” by the “simply unacceptable” viral video and asked the government to bring the perpetrators of the crime to justice and file a report on what it was doing to prevent such incidents in future.
On Sunday, the U.S. State Department said it was deeply concerned by reports about the video and called the incident “brutal” and “terrible,” the Reuters news agency said.
Washington encouraged a peaceful and inclusive resolution to the Manipur violence and urged authorities to respond to humanitarian needs while protecting all groups, homes and places of worship, a State Department spokesperson said.
Not an isolated incident
India has a shameful record of sexual assaults, with 86 women being raped daily on average, according to the latest government data.
And more cases of sexual violence reported to police in the last two months but never acted on have come to light.
Indian media reported Saturday that police records show a similar incident happened May 5, with two women in their early 20s being gangraped and brutally murdered by a mob of about 200 people. But after more than two months, no arrests have been made.
In another incident on May 15, an 18-year-old girl was abducted and gangraped in the state’s Imphal East district, Indian media reported.
Manipur police, now under pressure to act swiftly, are examining thousands of complaints, including those of arson, killings and sexual assaults, even as the violence continues unabated.
A conflict over territory
The violent conflict in Manipur, the northeast Indian state of 3.3 million people, is between two communities – Meiteis and Kukis – predominantly over land but with evident religious overtones. Meiteis are mainly Hindu, comprise 53% of the state’s population and live in the valley. Kukis are mainly Christian, about 40% of the population, and live in the hills.
The violence began early in May when a court suggested that land rights and other economic benefits enjoyed only by the tribal community of Kukis could be extended to Meiteis too. Kukis started protesting, arguing that the move would further strengthen rival Meiteis, allowing them to buy land and settle in predominantly Kuki areas.
The protests led to regular violent and armed clashes between the two communities in which several houses, temples, and churches were burned down and sexual violence was used as a tool of intimidation.
“There is a complete collapse of governance,” Patricia Mukhim, and activist and editor of The Shillong Times, told CBS News. “It is a humanitarian crisis and a civil war.”
Manipur’s tribal communities have fought one another for decades but also clashed with India’s military over varied demands of a separate homeland. More than a dozen militant outfits are still active in the state.
Did “divisive policies” lead to the conflict?
Opposition politicians have alleged that the government of the state, which is run by Modi’s Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), is biased in favor of the Meiteis.
Mukhim asserted that even the police are siding with Meiteis.
She explained that the right-wing political party has concern on the part of Meiteis that Kukis will outnumber them as non-Indian Kukis from the bordering country of Myanmar constantly come in.
“For Meiteis, it’s kind of a fight to the finish. … It’s now or never,” she explained. “They feel if they drive Kukis out they would be able to occupy some of their land.”
Earlier this month, a European Parliament resolution said the violence in Manipur was a result of the “divisive policies promoting Hindu majoritarianism.”
India responded by saying the EU Parliament should focus on its own internal issues and that “such interference in India’s internal affairs” was “unacceptable” and reflected “a colonial mindset.”
Several opposition leaders have questioned the federal and the state governments for, in their view, not doing enough to quell the widespread violence in the state.
London – Kevin Spacey’s trial began Wednesday in London, with the Hollywood actor facing charges of sexual assault, indecent assault and a more serious offense of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent, which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Spacey has pleaded not guilty to all of the 12 charges against him.
The 63-year-old arrived at London’s Southwark Crown Court and smiled and waved at media gathered outside the building as he waked in. The trial is expected to last four weeks.
Actor Kevin Spacey, right, arrives at Southwark Crown Court in London, England, June 28, 2023.
Dan Kitwood/Getty
Spacey has repeatedly denied the allegations made by four men who are now in their 30s and 40s over acts they accuse Spacey of committing during a 12-year period between 2001 and 2013. Some of the charges date back to a period when the actor was the artistic director at London’s Old Vic Theatre, a position he held for more than a decade before his departure in 2015.
The alleged victims cannot be identified under English law.
An internal 2017 investigation by the theater resulted in 20 anonymous claims of alleged inappropriate behavior by Spacey during his time as its artistic director.
The Oscar-winner’s “stardom and status at The Old Vic may have prevented people, and in particular junior staff or young actors, from feeling that they could speak up or raise a hand for help,” a statement from the Old Vic said at the time.
Spacey’s glittering Hollywood career largely came to an end in 2017 when actor Anthony Rapp publicly accused him of sexual misconduct in a separate case, alleging that Spacey had targeted him when he was just 14 years old.
In October last year, a New York court dismissed a $40 million civil suit brought against Spacey by Rapp for alleged sexual misconduct dating back to the late 1980s. A judge had ruled separately that Rapp brought the case too late for criminal charges.
Charges of indecent assault and battery were also dropped against the actor in a separate case in Massachusetts in 2019, after a young man who had accused him declined to testify in the case.
In an interview earlier this month with German magazine Zeit, Spacey insisted that it was his work that “will be remembered,” and he expressed a desire to revive his career should he be cleared of the charges against him in the U.K.
“I know that there are people right now who are ready to hire me the moment I am cleared of these charges in London. The second that happens, they’re ready to move forward,” Spacey said.
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A 32-year-old man will spend more than five years behind bars after raping a woman in Adelaide’s CBD in 2021.
Key points:
Harpreet Singh Chahal was sentenced to more than seven years in jail for rape
Chahal followed a woman walking in the Adelaide CBD
The victim says her life has been impacted forever
WARNING: This story contains details readers may find distressing.
Harpreet Singh Chahal was sentenced today after he pleaded guilty to one count of rape.
The court heard the victim rented an apartment on Morphett Street for a 35th birthday celebration with a group of friends in September 2021.
The victim was walking home alone after a night out when she attended bars and a Peel Street restaurant, the court heard.
She finished her night at the Exeter Hotel and started to walk back to her accommodation about 12:30am.
She walked past two men on Flinders Street who started to follow her.
The court heard that Chahal made comments to the woman such as “you look hot” and “don’t you want to stop and talk to us?”, to which the victim replied “no” and kept walking.
Both men continued to follow her on the street before Chahal pulled on her arm, which caused the victim to stumble, the court heard.
At the time, Chahal told the victim how much she’s “going to like it” when he grabbed and took her off the street before smashing her mobile phone on the ground.
The court heard Chahal raped the victim, and she asked him to stop multiple times.
SARASOTA, FL—Gasping with joy as his father revealed the graduation gift, local wealthy child Scott Hoffman thanked his parents Tuesday after they surprised him with a judge who would let him off the hook for future rape accusations. “Oh man, this is the best present ever—thank you, thank you, thank you Mom and Dad!” said an elated Hoffman, who jumped up and down, sprinted out the door of his house, and immediately began inspecting the 76-year-old state court judge who would ensure that multiple sexual assault accusations against him were dropped . “Please, please, please, can I take him for a spin? I promise I’ll be careful when I use him to get around the legal system. This is so perfect for my first year of college. Everyone’s going to be so jealous that I got one on the 12th Judicial Circuit. How did you know I wanted one that was white?” At press time, Hoffman had been grounded by his parents after he refused to share the judge with his younger brother, who had been charged with raping several classmates.
Onion Explains: The International State Of Women’s Rights Pt. 2
A federal jury in New York found former President Donald Trump liable for battery and defamation in a civil trial stemming from allegations he raped the writer E. Jean Carroll in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s.
She was awarded $5 million total in damages.
The jury, made up of six men and three women, got the case earlier Tuesday and deliberated for less than three hours. The jury’s decision had to be unanimous. In closing arguments, Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan reminded the jury that for the battery charge, “all you need is that it is more probable than not” that Trump attacked Carroll to find him liable, which is a much lower standard than the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard applied in criminal trials.
The jury found Trump liable for sexual assault, but not rape, and also found that he defamed Carroll.
After the verdict, Trump posted on Truth Social: “I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHO THIS WOMAN IS. THIS VERDICT IS A DISGRACE – A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME!”
In two videos posted to his Truth Social account later Wednesday night, Trump called the verdict a “disgrace” and a “sham” and said that he and his legal team will be “appealing this decision.”
Court sketch of E. Jean Carroll and attorneys in her civil lawsuit against former President Donald Trump.
Jane Rosenberg
Before Judge Lewis Kaplan discharged the jurors, who remained anonymous throughout the trial, he thanked them and told them they are now free to speak publicly about their service. However, he advised them against doing so. If they do, he barred them from identifying any of their peers on the panel.
As the jurors exited the courtroom one last time, it appeared none of them made eye contact with Carroll on their way out. After the jurors had gone, Carroll’s attorneys embraced her. Trump was not in the courtroom for the verdict or any of the trial.
During the eight-day trial, attorneys for Carroll pressed a case to the jury laying out how her allegations fit a pattern, or “modus operandi,” for Trump. In addition to witnesses who said Carroll confided in them after the incident, the jury heard from two other women who described Trump suddenly turning casual confrontations into sexual misconduct. They also watched the “Access Hollywood” video clip in which Trump could be heard crudely describing grabbing women by their genitals.
Ahead of the verdict on Tuesday morning, Trump posted on Truth Social that he was “not allowed to speak or defend myself, even as hard nosed reporters scream questions about this case at me.”
Trump was permitted to testify in his own defense, but chose not to. Jurors were shown Trump’s videotaped deposition from October in which he repeatedly denied the accusations.
Carroll accused Trump of assaulting and raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in New York City in the mid-1990s, and then defaming her after she published her account in 2019. Trump, who has claimed he never met Carroll and “she’s not my type,” forcefully denied her accusations.
E. Jean Carroll, center, walks out of Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, May 9, 2023, in New York. A jury has found Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing the advice columnist in 1996, awarding her $5 million.
Seth Wenig / AP
His statements about Carroll were core to her defamation claim. The jury was shown a late-1980s photo that appears to depict Trump and Carroll in conversation with their then-spouses. They also watched the moment in Trump’s videotaped deposition when he was shown the photo and incorrectly identified Carroll as his ex-wife Marla Maples. Defense attorney Roberta Kaplan argued it was proof Carroll was indeed Trump’s “type.”
After Trump was told of mistaking the women during his deposition, he said the photo was “blurry.”
Carroll testified during the trial, saying she bumped into Trump while exiting the store one evening. She said Trump recognized her, saying “Hey, you’re that advice lady,” referring to a magazine column she wrote for nearly three decades. She said she replied, “Hey, you’re that real estate tycoon.”
Carroll, then 52, said Trump, then 50, wanted advice on a gift purchase for a girl. She described pleasant, “joshing” banter as they perused the store, even after he suggested they go to the lingerie department.
Carroll, who wrote for “Saturday Night Live” in the 1980s, said the encounter seemed like a comedic scene, until things took a dark turn when they went to a dressing room.
Carroll said Trump pushed her against the wall, her head slamming against it. She said Trump forcefully penetrated her with his hand, causing severe pain, and then penetrated her with his penis.
Carroll said she managed to force her knee between them, pushing him away before leaving as fast as she could.
She said she told two other people about the alleged attack soon after, her friends Lisa Birnbach and Carol Martin. Both were called to testify during the trial, delivering testimony that largely matched Carroll’s recollection.
Trump attorney Joe Tacopina showed jurors emails and text messages between Carroll, Martin and Birnbach that appeared to show their animosity to Trump, who was then the president, as the defense tried to portray a politically motivated effort by the trio to use Carroll’s story to tarnish him.
Tacopina laid out the case as one in which Trump had “no story to tell,” because he said Carroll’s claim was entirely made up. In her closing arguments, Kaplan said the jury had to decide who was telling the truth: “the nonstop liar” Trump, or 11 people who testified under oath on Carroll’s behalf.
Ultimately, the jury believed her.
What is the difference between sexual battery and rape?
The jury chose to go with sexual battery instead of rape, potentially for a variety of reasons, CBS News legal analyst Rikki Klieman explained.
.@rikkijklieman explains the difference between rape and sexual battery after a jury finds Trump liable for battery and defamation.
“In many jurisdictions, that kind of penetration of the vagina by a finger would also be considered rape, but perhaps this jury felt differently.” pic.twitter.com/lBZF1Hn1YZ
Klieman defined sexual battery as “a forcible touching, plus more.”
One possible reason the jury chose sexual battery over rape is they came to a “compromise” about what actually happened, Klieman explained. Klieman said Carroll was very “emphatic” about a finger, and what that felt like.
“In many jurisdictions, that kind of penetration of the vagina by a finger would also be considered rape, but perhaps this jury felt differently,” she said. “There is no doubt that they saw and heard enough to say, ‘Well perhaps it wasn’t rape for all kinds of extraneous reasons,’ but nonetheless they felt that that, one question down, they could find it a sexual abuse. They didn’t go further down the list of the judge’s “lesser” included offenses, as we lawyers would say.”
On the second day of her testimony on Thursday, as one of her lawyers questioned her, the magazine writer and longtime Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll was revisiting the past few years of her experience of social media. She was, she told her attorney, on the platform, former president Donald Trump’s hastily launched Twitter clone. Carroll sued Trump in November over her allegation, which she first made in 2019, that the former president raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in 1996. Since coming forward with her accusation, which Trump denies, Carroll said she’s seen her daily life shaped by the kind of discourse that’s become familiar to just about every American following along with the Trump era. In October 2022, Trump wrote on Truth Social that Carroll’s lawsuit against him was a “a complete con job” and “a Hoax and a lie.”
Carroll advocated for the new New York state law under which she is suing Trump, which provided a one-year window for adult sexual abuse victims to bring lawsuits against their alleged abusers after the statute of limitations has passed. (The trial is in federal court because Carroll and Trump reside in different states.) In the Manhattan courtroom Thursday, during her second day of testimony, her attorney asked Carroll why she had done so. “Because I understand why women, particularly, and some men, do not come forward,” she replied. “It takes years, and some maturity, and age.”
As a veteran magazine writer, Carroll has in recent years turned the focus of her work and public statements to such questions. Testifying in a federal courthouse, she reflected on many of the common matters that often go unaddressed in high-profile sex abuse trials. There’s a playbook for defense attorneys in these cases: They poke for inconsistencies and ask why alleged victims didn’t do one thing or another at the time they say they were abused. Joe Tacopina,the celebrity lawyer representing Trump, repeatedly sparred with Carroll about her account. They went back and forth about the meaning of several words such as “inconceivable,” “satire,” and “skimpy,” with Tacopina painting himself as a folksy foil to the literary-minded witness. He asked why she didn’t scream, and provoked one of the day’s highest-temperature moments.
“He raped me whether I screamed or not,” Carroll said, her voice rising.
“You need a minute, Ms. Carroll?”
“No, go right on.”
Tacopina, wearing a tight suit with his hair gelled, has previously represented Alex Rodriguez and A$AP Rocky. In recent weeks, he has become a cable news fixture on account of his involvement in Trump’s other ongoing Manhattan legal matter. Carroll was aware of the persona.
“You work out all the time,” she said to Tacopina at one point. “We’ve read about it.”
Tacopina seemed to have to stop himself from engaging.
Earlier this month, when Trump was indicted on charges of falsifying business records, his arrival from Palm Beach for his arraignment was an all-day news event. (He pleaded not guilty.) On Thursday, as Carroll testified, Trump was campaigning in New Hampshire to reclaim the presidency. Nearby the courthouse, a film crew was shooting the CBS procedural FBI and a tour group stared down One World Trade Center. Some of the crowd gathered around Daniel Patrick Moynihan Courthouse were there for the British singer Ed Sheeran’s copyright infringement trial. (He has denied claims of copying a Marvin Gaye song.)
During his questioning, Carroll’s attorney displayed several of the tweets that have been directed at her. Trump’s initial denial in June 2019 infamously centered on his description of Carroll as “not my type.” Years on, his supporters were continuing to echo the idea. Carroll said the comments she’s received remain “equally disparaging and hurtful” relative to the initial blowback.
“I looked at my Twitter this morning,” she said. “They haven’t stopped.”
Columnist E. Jean Carroll faced cross-examination from former President Donald Trump’s attorney in the New York trial of her civil lawsuit against Trump, in which she alleges that he sexually assaulted her in the mid-1990s. Elaine Quijano reports.
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