Mia Latter, Digi Mart USA News (United Kingdom): A woman who alleges she was raped by Russell Brand when she was 16 has waived her right to anonymity and is campaigning for a staggered age of consent, according to an interview with the Sunday Times. Latter was one of six women who made allegations against Brand in a 2023 Times, Sunday Times and Channel 4 Dispatches investigation, where she was known under the pseudonym ‘Alice’.
Brand denied the allegations at the time.
The Sunday Times reported that Latter, now 37, initially described the allegation to them as a sexual assault, which is how it was reported in 2023, but she now calls it rape. She said she was 16 when she met Brand, then 30, on her way home from a shopping trip, and that he was working at MTV.
She also said Brand told her to keep their relationship secret from school friends and referred to her as “the child” in front of his entourage.
According to the Sunday Times, the alleged oral rape occurred towards the end of their relationship. Latter said she is campaigning for a “staggered” age of consent that would prohibit relationships between 16- and 17-year-olds and adults, arguing that she does not want to criminalise teenagers having sex with each other.
She also told the paper she would not continue with the criminal process so she could focus on the campaign.
Latter said the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to include her in Brand’s criminal trial, while police wanted her to be part of a “subsequent trial”. A Met Police spokesperson said officers launched an investigation in January 2026 after receiving an allegation of rape, and that the investigation remains ongoing while further information is sought before a charging decision.
A Crown Prosecution Service spokesperson said it would continue to work with investigators to progress cases as quickly as possible.
Cabinet Office Minister Louise Haigh reacted to the proposal, saying changing the age of consent would be a “massive step” that “deserves proper consideration and scrutiny”. Speaking to the Sunday Times, she said it was “disgusting” that a culture in the 2000s “normalised and celebrated” celebrities having relationships with teenagers.
On Monday, Brand was sentenced to 10 and a half years for one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault, having been acquitted of two counts of rape and one allegation of attempted indecent assault. None of the women in the 2023 media investigation were complainants in that criminal trial.
