Charalar (🇨🇭🇩🇪🇪🇺🌍)

TEXT messages between Brand and victim: 3:29 a.m. after the alleged incident, Brand texted: “I’m sorry. That was crazy and selfish. I hope you can forgive me, I know that you’re a lovely person. X.” She later replied that he had scared her, that “when a girl say[s] NO it means no,” and asked about testing. He replied: “[I’m] very sorry. You don’t need to get tested. I will make this up to you somehow with live [sic] and kindness. Not my original idea which was more sex. You’ve been lovely to me and I’m embarrassed by my behaviour. Sorry. X.” ___________________________________________ She sought care at a sexual health clinic (not a general hospital A&E primarily for acute trauma) shortly afterward because of pain, bleeding (including from an anal tear), and strong fear she had contracted HIV or another blood-borne virus after non-consensual anal sex without a condom. She described being in significant physical distress (“bleeding everywhere,” unable to sit comfortably, looking ashen/ill).⁠ Clinic/nurse records (via the nurse’s written statement read in court): The woman told the nurse that Brand “had anal sex without a condom and she didn’t want that and didn’t consent to that.” Clinic staff assessed her as at high risk of infection; she was tested (results were negative) and referred for therapy sessions. This contemporaneous medical disclosure aligned with what she told others.⁠ People she told at the time (days/weeks after in 2009): She disclosed to her parents, friends, boyfriend, a colleague/manager at work, and the sexual health nurse. Multiple people encouraged her to go to the police; she declined at the time, saying she would not be believed because she had gone to his house willingly for what began as consensual sex. Coverage notes roughly eight witnesses describing immediate post-incident accounts (pain, non-consent, being told to “clear up the mess,” etc.), with further disclosures later.⁠The Guardian Witnesses for this allegation: The court heard from 24 witnesses (some reports say 25 or “two dozen”) connected to her—family, friends, colleagues, the nurse, an ex-boyfriend, and others—who gave evidence (in person, by statement, or remotely) that she had told them a consistent account of non-consensual anal rape after consensual vaginal sex, the pain, the cleanup demand, and her distress. These were presented to support her credibility and show early, consistent disclosure rather than a later invention after media coverage.⁠The Guardian (Note: The broader police investigation into Brand involved hundreds of interviews and more than 340 witness statements overall across multiple allegations. Brand denied non-consensual activity, claimed encounters were consensual or later reimagined, and was convicted of this rape plus three sexual assaults against other women; he was acquitted on some other counts.)