“Russell Brand: Who made the media Judge, Jury and Executioner?”
Jim Davidson appeared on GB News to discuss the damning rape allegations made against comedian Russell Brand, and asked: “Doesn’t everyone deserve a fair trial?”
GB News presenter Dan Wootton said he believed there was a “worrying trend” emerging of trial by media since the accusations were made in a Channel 4 documentary and the Sunday Times, with politicians since weighing in on the issue.
Four women have made allegations of rape and sexual assault against Brand in a joint investigation by Channel 4, The Times and Sunday Times. He has since been dumped by his agent, his tour has been cancelled and YouTube has stopped the monetisation of his videos. Culture Secretary Caroline Dinenage has now also written to other social media bosses questioning Brand’s content on their platforms.
Jim said: “It’s slightly worrying when Channel 4 and the Sunday Times are now judge, jury and executioner of anyone they want to put their sights on.
“The accusation alone does the job.
“I don’t know Russell Brand and I don’t know the facts, but what is puzzling me in any of these cases is that anybody can say anything about anybody.
“But where are the facts?
“Why haven’t the police arrested Russell Brand? I think the answer to that is that no-one complained to the police although there is a rumour that someone has now said something from 2003.”
Jim himself was the centre of accusations of historical sexual assault back in 2012. He was one of a number of celebrities arrested as part of the Operation Yewtree investigation and spent a “year of hell” on bail before being told he faced no further action to any of the 11 false allegations made by women.
He added: “Anyone is innocent until proven guilty. When I was arrested, the accusers were known as “victims” straight away. The policewoman said to me they have to take what they have been told as facts until they can be proven wrong rather than the other way round.
“It’s a strange old world we live in. Britain has the greatest justice system in the world and the police were very kind to me.
“With the help of my lawyer and barrister we gave them all the evidence to prove the accusations were false and it all stopped.
“But it never really goes away. There’s always that accusation still there.
“Russell has millions of millions of supporters and it seems that if people like him, he’s innocent. If people don’t like him, he’s guilty. That’s the world we’re living in now. People don’t seem to need any facts at all. Is that how we do things in this country?
“If I was him I would actually hope I was arrested to give me the chance to say, “Look I didn’t do this and here is the proof”. That process has to be allowed to play out.”
