More women have come forward since the start of Russell Brand's rape and sexual assault trial, a UK police chief said Tuesday, as the disgraced TV star began a 10-year jail sentence.
The reports of fresh complaints came as Brand's defence lawyer faced a storm of criticism for his comments and line of questioning in court, reopening the debate about victim shaming in Britain.
Detective Inspector Andy Furphy from the London Metropolitan Police said two further allegations against Brand were already being investigated and "we've had several reports in during the trial and since the verdict" on Thursday.
Brand, who has reinvented himself as an online Christian guru, was on Monday jailed for 10 years and six months after being found guilty of one rape and three sexual assaults committed between 2004 and 2009.
The judge described him as a "sexual predator".
But defence lawyer Ian Winter has been sharply criticised for telling the trial Brand's victims were "not particularly vulnerable at all" and that he could not be guilty of rape as his accusers had not "resisted or screamed or even tried to leave".
UK deputy prime minister Lucy Powell said she found some of the defence's comments at the trial "incredibly depressing".
Support organisations said such tactics harked back to a previous era.
Victim Support said it had been "appalled, but not surprised, by the rape myths, misconceptions and stereotypes deployed by the defence" during Brand's trial.
It added that women should not have had to endure "disgraceful attempts to blame and discredit them" in court.
"Rape myths and stereotypes are still used day in, day out in sexual violence trials. The defendant's profile in this case has shone a spotlight on a systemic failing faced by victim-survivors across the country," it said.
Brand was charged last year after being exposed in 2023 by journalists from the Sunday Times, The Times and the Channel 4 Dispatches programme.
"Throughout Russell Brand's trial, we saw rape myths in action: Why didn't she scream? Why didn't she fight back? Why did she wait so long to report it?" wrote Ciara Bergman, head of Rape Crisis England & Wales, in the iPaper newspaper after Brand's conviction.
"These were all introduced as ways of discrediting the survivors and/or introducing doubt into the minds of jurors," she said.
Bergman added the guilty verdict on the rape charge was "important" as the complainant had earlier had consensual sex with Brand.
"It suggests understanding among jurors that there is no such thing as blanket or automatic consent," she said.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham said on Saturday the government must look at changing rape trials to "make sure they do not leave the woman feeling like she is on trial in court as has been the experience of people in the past".
He pledged to introduce specialist rape and serious sexual offence teams in every police force by the end of 2027.
Rights of Women said the Brand trial highlighted the "urgent need for a trauma-informed justice system".
There was support for Brand from some in the United States, including some aligned with the MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement of President Donald Trump.
Former Fox News host Megyn Kelly called Brand's predicament before he was sentenced a "political witch hunt" while tech billionaire Elon Musk called it "unjust".
Brand was feted by the political left in Britain during the 2000s and early 2010s for his anti-establishment and anti-corporate views including wealth redistribution.
By the early 2020s, however, he had become a populist anti-establishment commentator with views that overlapped with parts of the political right.