The BBC was accused of 'buck-passing' over Russell Brand today as it emerged he boasted his bosses were 'incredibly tolerant' of his sexual behaviour at work and he openly joked about raping women and children.
The convicted rapist said Lesley Douglas, the BBC's controller of Radio 2 and 6 Music at the height of his fame in the 2000s, had 'loved me and gave me lots of room, so I took that room'.
Brand claimed this allowed him to use BBC disabled toilets for sex with female 6 Music competition winners and 'interacting in an intimate manner' with a female newsreader as she 'racily recited massacres and football scores'.
His behaviour was so brazen that he openly joked about raping and killing a women and having sex with audience members, homeless people and children.
An internal BBC review revealed there had been eight complaints about Brand and his inappropriate behaviour, including two made while he worked for the corporation between 2006 and 2008. No action was taken.
Sinead Haysom, an employment lawyer and partner at Arbor Law, said the BBC appeared to have been 'buck-passing' when responding to questions about Brand.
'It is telling that the BBC's first response was to point out that Brand "worked for a number of different organisations, of which the BBC was one",' she said.
'Its own review later found that junior staff felt there was no point complaining about Brand. In my opinion, that initial response sounds like buck-passing.'
In his memoir, Booky Wook 2, Brand wrote: 'Lesley Douglas was incredibly tolerant of my behaviour at Radio 2.
'If you listen to old 6 Music podcasts, you will notice that all the competition winners that came into the studio while we broadcast were female. This is because there was an additional aspect to the prize which could never be explicitly stated due to the BBC's rigid policy prohibiting the misuse of the disabled lavvy.'
He added: 'Lesley loved me and gave me lots of room, so I took that room. We began to wind up the newsreaders, throwing to the news in a childish fashion, goading them into including daft words in the bulletin.
'I went too far and started claiming that during the news I'd be under the desk, interacting in an intimate manner with the newswoman as she racily recited massacres and football scores. She was a bit upset.'
Douglas had an 'almost obsessive' commitment to the comic, fellow DJ Paul Gambaccini later claimed.
Former BBC Radio 2 controller Lesley Douglas treated Russell Brand (pictured together) as her 'pet' and the comic said she was 'incredibly tolerant' of his sexualised behaviour
The Daily Mail unearthed the footage of Russell Brand joking about raping a woman and children
The BBC apologised again last night after Brand was convicted of rape and three other serious sexual offences. More charges could yet follow.
Comedian Brand joins the long list of BBC presenters who have been convicted of serious sexual offending, including Rolf Harris, Stuart Hall, Jonathan King and Chris Denning - one of the original Radio 1 presenters.
A BBC spokesman said of Brand's convictions: 'Firstly, the thoughts of everyone at the BBC are with the brave women who came forward and told their stories which led to a conviction in this case.
'There can be no place for the abuse of power. Across the industry, we must work together to ensure that anyone who suffers at someone else's hand feels able to report it, that their concerns are taken seriously and that they are listened to.
'We published a detailed report in January 2025 into how complaints about Russell Brand's conduct were handled. This looked at eight allegations of misconduct while he worked here between 2006 and 2008.
'It was of great concern to us that some people felt unable to raise concerns about Brand's behaviour. We apologised to those impacted, for both the culture and failings at the time, and we reiterate that apology again today.'
Channel 4 and MTV did not comment.
Russell Brand joked about raping a woman in a video only deleted from YouTube when allegations about his abuse emerged in 2023.
Brand was speaking to Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast in 2013 where he claimed he was a 'mundane bloke... from a single-parent family' who became a 'pretty comprehensive show-off'.
But Herring and the audience roared with laughter when the star broke the silence and said: 'Oh I've raped someone once' and 'killed her after'.
In the same video he also joked about the ancient Greeks having sex with children while creating mathematics, saying: 'They didn't mind it did they. They were clever weren't they.'
He then mimicked having sex and said: 'I've done another triangle. I'm f***ing a little kid. This is great. F**k the kid with the triangle. No that's too much.' He also joked about adults such as babysitters performing sex acts in front of children, including him.
The Russell Brand Show and Brand and Jonathan Ross's prank calls to Andrew Sachs caused a huge scandal. Brand resigned, Ross was suspended and Lesley Douglas also quit
In the deleted YouTube interview with fellow comedian Herring, Brand, who also called himself a 'sex narcissist', says: 'Look at the women in this room. Even a bold estimate would be that I've slept with half of them. Currently.'
Later he was asked about using homeless people to promote his Messiah tour and whether as a millionaire comedian it was 'exploitative'.
Brand then said 'you should have seen what happened after the video' and mimed having sex with them and stubbing out a cigarette on them.
'Who's going to care? Who are you going to tell? If society cared you wouldn't be homeless,' he said.
Brand is yet another sex offender who worked for the BBC.
Up to 450 young people were abused and assaulted by another 'face of the BBC' Jimmy Savile.
Police recorded 199 crimes in 17 police force areas in which Savile was a suspect, among them 31 allegations of rape.
The crimes stretched 1955 to 2009 and allegations included the abuse of desperately ill children and necrophilia with corpses at included Leeds General Infirmary mortuary.
BBC bosses were accused of staging various cover-ups to protect Savile. who committed the offences at hospitals and locations across the country including BBC Television Centre.
Most recently, in 2024 former news anchor Huw Edwards was handed a suspended jail sentence for making vile pictures of children.
Chris Denning, one of the original Radio 1 presenters, who was a regular at 'The Walton Hop' with King, was jailed for 18 months for gross indecency with a child and in 1988 for three years for indecent assault on a 13-year-old boy and possession of indecent photographs.
In 2008, he was extradited from Britain to Slovakia, where he was jailed in October for five years for producing child pornography.
In 2014 Denning was jailed for 13 years after he admitted to a total to 40 sexual offences committed from 1967 to 1987 relating to 26 male victims, the youngest of whom was nine years old.
In 2016, Denning was given another 13 years after pleaded guilty to 21 sex offences against 11 boys between 1969 and 1986, the youngest of whom was aged eight.
In 2007 Actor Chris Langham, star of the BBC's 'In The Thick of It' was found guilty of downloading 15 child sexual abuse images and videos.
One of the videos showed the 'sadistic brutalisation of an eight-year-old girl.'
Comedian and actor Russell Brand, accompanied by his wife Laura Brand, arrives at Southwark Crown Court hours before his convictions on Thursday
He was sentenced to ten months in prison and was placed on the sexual offenders register for ten years
Last year the BBC was criticised for putting all the shows of 'In The Thick of It' back in on the BBC iPlayer.
In 2013 Stuart Hall, the commentator and presenter of 'It's A Knockout' was jailed for 30 months for two offences of indecent assault against a girl of 13 and another against a girl under 16.
The following year legendary children's presenter and entertainer Rolf Harris was jailed five years and nine months after he was convicted of 12 charges of indecent assault against four girls - including one aged seven.
Veteran Radio I presenter Dave Lee Travis was convicted of assaulting an adult researcher on the Mrs Merton show in 2014 and was sentenced to three months in prison, suspended for two years.
David Roberts, Senior Crown Prosecutor in the London Rape and Serious Sexual Assault Unit said: 'Russell Brand was predatory and used his celebrity status to commit sexual crimes.
'He was a manipulator with an insatiable desire to get what he wanted regardless of whether consent was given or not.
'As his career took off, he seized opportunities to assault the women around him. Although his tactics varied, at the centre of every assault was an abuse of power and sexual greed, with a complete disregard for the impact of his actions.
'I would like to thank all the women in this case for their courage in coming forward and seeing this sexual abuser brought to justice.'
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