Not as nice as he looks, it’s probably fair to say about comedian Russell Brand. Four women who spoke to The Sunday Times and the Channel 4 Dispatches programme have accused him of serious sexual assault, including one alleging rape. The Metropolitan Police has begun an investigation in a number of ‘non-recent’ sexual allegations against him, which may go further than the ones reported initially.
Mr Brand has denied all the original allegations. He maintains that all his sexual relations were consensual. It’s rather a low bar, that —not precluding any amount of bad behaviour — but it’s an important bar nonetheless. In other words, he is denying criminal coercion of women into sexual relations. He may have behaved like a complete beast, but he’s denying that he broke the law.
The law is valuable insofar as it protects not just nice people, but rather disagreeable ones
And that, I’m afraid, is something we’re in danger of losing sight of. There is all the difference between bad, inconsiderate and callous behaviour, and rape. It may be that when the police have finished investigating the claims, they’ll decide to bring charges against him, and then we can have the matter addressed in court. Until then, it may be worth remembering that nothing has been proven against Mr Brand, though it’s probably fair to say that you wouldn’t want your daughter to be the third Mrs Brand if there’s ever a vacancy. Notwithstanding all the pundits, most of them female, berating themselves for having let him off with shocking behaviour because he’s a Lefty, there’s an obvious truth that they’re not articulating. And that is, under English law, a man, even an unlovely piece of work like Mr B, is innocent until proven guilty.
Personally, I’ve never seen the point of Russell Brand qua comedian and I can certify that his one book for children is shockingly bad. But the media pile-on seems to assume his guilt before he’s even charged. In our anxiety to prove our virtue by disassociation, we’ve somehow blurred that nice distinction between bad behaviour, and criminality.
But the law is valuable insofar as it protects not just nice people, but rather disagreeable ones. Until he’s found guilty of crime we must treat him as innocent. Not as a nice man; just not a guilty one.
