British prosecutors on Tuesday charged Russell Brand, the comedian, actor and YouTuber, with two counts of sexual assault, including one of rape.
Mr. Brand, 50, was already facing five charges of sexual assault in Britain, including one of rape and another of oral rape, for encounters that were said to have occurred between 1999 and 2005. In May, Mr. Brand appeared in a London courthouse and pleaded not guilty to all of those charges.
The new charges relate to encounters involving two additional women and are said to have occurred in 2009.
A representative for Mr. Brand did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
British law prohibits the news media from identifying anyone who makes sexual assault allegations unless that person chooses to waive the right to anonymity. Once criminal proceedings are underway, journalists are not allowed to report any information that could prejudice a jury at a trial.
The country’s Crown Prosecution Service announced the new charges in a news release. It said Mr. Brand would appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London on Jan. 20 for an initial hearing.
Mr. Brand found fame in Britain in the early 2000s as a stand-up comedian and a TV and radio host. He gained a more global profile after starring in several hit movies, including “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” (2008) and “Get Him to the Greek” (2010), as well as through a brief marriage to the pop star Katy Perry.
Now Mr. Brand is better known as a politically charged YouTuber, with more than 6.7 million subscribers to his channel. In April, he posted a video to his social media channels in which he said that he had once been a “sex addict and an imbecile” but that he had “never engaged in nonconsensual activity.”
Alex Marshall is a Times reporter covering European culture. He is based in London.
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