allegations

A discussion over a staggered age of consent is to take place, the work and pensions secretary has said, as the government faces calls to change the law following the case against Russell Brand.

Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Pat McFadden said that “appalling” stories of “abuse of power by powerful men” have emerged this week.

A woman who alleges she was raped by jailed comedian Brand when she was 16 is now campaigning to see the law changed so that relationships between 16 and 17-year-olds and adults would be illegal.

Questions over a staggered age of consent have “been raised and will be discussed” McFadden said, adding: “[I] can’t tell you what the conclusion of that would be, but the last week has certainly put that up in lights.”

Adults of any age are legally able to have sex with 16 and 17-year-olds, under UK law.

Mia Latter, who has waived her right to anonymity, told the Sunday Times that she wants the age of consent to be staggered.

Latter is one of six women who made allegations against Brand in 2023 as part of a Times, Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches investigation.

She was known by the pseudonym “Alice”. Brand denied the allegations at the time and none of the six women were complainants in Brand’s recent criminal trial.

At Southwark Crown Court on Monday, Brand was sentenced to 10-and-a-half-years imprisonment after being convicted of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault, involving four women between 2004 and 2009. He was acquitted of two counts of rape and one allegation of attempted indecent assault.

Latter said she was 16 when she met the comedian, then 30. She told the Sunday Times: “I think people were so struck by my story because of the age difference and the clear imbalance [in power].

“I don’t want to criminalise teenagers having sex with each other.

“If you’re between the ages of 16 and 18, it seems reasonable that you can have relationships with each other, and [teenagers] are always going to.

“But…if you’re in your thirties, forties and fifties and you’re trying to have a relationship with someone under the age of 18, it [should be] a criminal offence.”

Layla Stone, founder of the campaign group Close the Consent Gap, said bringing in a staggered age of consent was about addressing a “power imbalance” in relationships involving 16 and 17 year-olds and adults. She urged ministers to commit to such a change.

Stone, a child protection social worker, told the BBC that 16 and 17 year-olds were seen as children in “every single framework of the law” and “we don’t believe [they are] old enough to consent to having sex with much older adults”.

Close the Consent Gap is proposing that 16 year-olds would not be able to have a sexual relationship with anyone older than 19, and that someone aged 17 would be prohibited from a relationship with anyone older than 20.

Further allegations of sexual misconduct in the entertainment industry came in the same week Brand was convicted.

ITV News and the Guardian published a story alleging that comedian David Walliams had been accused of sexual misconduct by several women.

One woman said she now characterises her alleged encounter with Walliams at 15 years old as a “sexual assault”. Walliams strongly denied he had any sexual contact with the girl.

Other women alleged inappropriate behaviour when he was a judge at ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent, such as inviting girls and young women to his dressing room.

Walliams said he rejected any allegations of criminal activity and that he has never engaged in the grooming of young women.

The Metropolitan Police said on Friday it has launched an investigation into Walliams over reports of “alleged serious sexual offences”, after the ITV News and the Guardian story. The Met said that the allegations it is investigating are separate from those reported by ITV and the Guardian but that it was “also proactively reviewing that reporting”.

Speaking to Sky News, the work and pensions secretary said: “I do think that between Russell Brand, David Walliams, what’s been put out there, people are looking at these issues in a new light.”

The public reckoning against British actor-comedian and convicted rapist Russell Brand continues after his conviction and prison sentencing for rape and sexual assault charges.

British screenwriter and producer Jemima Goldsmith accused ex-boyfriend Brand of “violence, coercive control and abuse” during their relationship. In a tweet shared Monday morning, Goldsmith (formerly Jemima Khan) alleged that she had Brand “removed from my house in 2014 during a violent incident.” Goldsmith, whose producing credits include “American Crime Story” and “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” said she did not press charges against Brand at the time and that she was “relieved” by the actor’s recent rape and sexual assault convictions.

The BBC confirmed on Wednesday that Thames Valley Police officers responded to Goldsmith’s Oxfordshire home for a reported incident in July 2014. Officials told the outlet that police made no arrests at the time and “also ensured the victim’s partner left the address, as per the victim’s wishes.”

“I am glad and relieved that Russell Brand has finally faced justice,” Goldsmith wrote.

A legal representative for Brand did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment.

Goldsmith, 52, said in her post that she chose not to go public with her allegations against Brand because she was concerned about “the impact of the press attention on my then teenage children.” She said she has not been in contact with the actor, 51, since the alleged incident.

“Whilst my pain in relation to this, pales in comparison to what the women have testified in court have suffered, this was a difficult period in my life which has had a lasting impact,” she continued.

Goldsmith spoke out about her relationship with Brand as British police confirm further investigation of criminal allegations against him. The actor, famed for films including “Get Him to the Greek” and “Arthur,” was sentenced Monday to more than a decade in prison for rape and sexual assault charges. A jury found Brand guilty last week on one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault involving four women. He was acquitted on two rape counts and one count of attempted indecent assault. He stood trial for three weeks in October.

“Several people have contacted the investigation team during and since the trial to provide information or report a potential criminal allegation,” the Metropolitan Police Service said Tuesday in a statement to The Times. “Detectives are assessing this information as part of their ongoing enquiries.”

Brand was tried for charges stemming from his interactions with six women in the U.K., spanning from the late 1990s to the late aughts. Shortly after the jury handed down its verdict, police confirmed that they provided prosecutors with investigations into two additional rape allegations against the actor.

Goldsmith said in her post that she aided the British reporters behind the joint investigation by the Times of London and Channel 4 that made allegations against Brand public in 2023. Following the investigation, additional women came forward with allegations against the actor that his defense attorney took issue with during the trial. The “well of justice had been corrupted and contaminated” by the documentary, Brand attorney Ian Winter argued during the court proceedings.

After speaking out against Brand, Goldsmith addressed resurfaced reporting about a harassment injunction she and Brand obtained against a woman in 2014. The woman, a massage therapist who Goldsmith hired to work on Brand at her house, accused the actor of physical assault in 2014. Police determined at the time “there was no case to answer and that no criminal offence had been committed,” Goldsmith said.

She accused the woman of feeding “several untrue stories” to multiple British tabloids and then engaging in a “campaign of vicious antisemitic and threatening abuse online and in emails.” Goldsmith included examples of the alleged vitriolic messages in her tweet and alleged the woman sent similar messages to her loved ones, workplace and to journalists. She said the woman also accused her of “wild and untrue” crimes.

Goldsmith said she agreed to a harassment order to prevent the woman from “targeting me and my family.” She said in her post that she agreed to vary the harassment injunction so the woman could report her incident with Brand to police again if she wished.

Goldsmith added that any changes to the injunction must also be approved by Brand and that she has not heard from the woman’s attorney on the matter since May.

Walliams rose to fame alongside Matt Lucas in the early 2000s with BBC sketch comedy Little Britain, served as a judge on ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent, and launched a best-selling series of children’s books.

A BBC spokesperson described the allegations as “serious” and the corporation has removed Little Britain from BBC iPlayer.

Several women have spoken to the Guardian and ITV News as part of a joint three-year investigation by the media companies, accusing Walliams of “grooming” them when they were teenagers. The investigation was published after Walliams lost a legal bid to stop the claims against him being made public.

One of the women now characterises her alleged encounter with Walliams at 15 years old as a “sexual assault”.

Speaking to BBC Newsnight, Lilly Creightmore, who has alleged Walliams “groomed” her as a teenager, said she was “angry” at his behaviour.

She said that Walliams invited her to move in with him while she was “in between living situations”. She was 18 at the time. She “felt instantly pressured to share a bed with him” but told him she was not interested in him in a romantic way.

After about a week of refusing Walliams’s advances, Creightmore said “he started to become very moody and rude and cold”.

According to ITV, Walliams says he did not act inappropriately and did not “target” her because she was “vulnerable” or “young”.

TV agent Dermot McNamara, who has represented someone allegedly groomed by Walliams, told BBC Newsnight he had informed “authorities and broadcasters” about Walliams’s alleged “inappropriate behaviour” but no action was taken.

Walliams denies all allegations, and in a statement to journalists shared by the Guardian said he was “not a sexual predator” and had not “broken the law”.

He acknowledged that “at times I behaved thoughtlessly towards other people I had casual sexual relationships with” and said he regretted not always taking “people’s feelings properly into account”.

El Cerrito High School in the Bay Area has canceled the remainder of its football season following a month-long police investigation into allegations of hazing and sexual assault involving at least 22 athletes over the last three seasons.

The probe stems from “a mandated reporter” on Oct. 2 telling police that members of the football team were engaging in bullying and hazing, the El Cerrito Police Department said in a statement. A mandated reporter in California is someone who has responsibility for children through their employment or volunteer status and is legally required to report suspected child abuse.

The alleged victims were other members of the football team. Detectives interviewed them along with school staff and witnesses. The West Contra Costa Unified School District, in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, said the alleged incidents were said to have occurred between September 2024 and October 2026.

The police said they are investigating allegations of battery, sexual battery, assault, false imprisonment, dissuading a victim, conspiracy and stalking.

Detectives have obtained video evidence that corroborated the allegations, although police officials said they would not release details because of “the sensitive nature of an ongoing investigation that involves juvenile victims, witnesses and suspects.”

El Cerrito head coach Tim Johnson was placed on leave, and the team’s regular-season finale Friday against El Sobrante De Anza High was canceled. El Cerrito has a 6-3 record but will not participate in the upcoming playoffs to defend their title won last year.

The school district said it is conducting its own investigation under Title IX.

“No child should ever experience what our students have described,” District Supt. Cheryl Cotton said. “While we have worked to focus on accountability for the actions of individual players up until this point, new information has led to new decisions.

“We must now make the very tough call to immediately suspend the El Cerrito High football program in order to prevent any further harm and restore a safe learning environment for our students.”

Cotton said the district is “providing resources for all impacted and involved students” through classroom instruction on anti-hazing and bystander education.

The El Cerrito football program is two years removed from a controversy that allegedly coincided with the beginning of the hazing. Six games were forfeited by the Gauchos in 2024 and their coach at the time, Jacob Rincon, was suspended for breaking rules prohibiting undue influence and athletically motivated transfers. Several players were deemed ineligible, and the program was placed on probation for two years.

Some parents and advocates of the program were outraged by the school’s action, calling on Rincon to be reinstated and then-principal Malcolm Norrington to be fired. More than 100 students engaged in a walkout, waving homemade posters and chanting “Free Coach Jake,” and “No More Norrington,” according to digital news site Richmond Confidential.

Parents gathered more than 2,000 signatures in a petition to fire Norrington, who left the district in 2025. Rincon was dismissed and replaced last season by Johnson, who led the team to a 13-2 record and the school’s first State Division 4-A championship.

According to the police, however, the hazing and sexual assaults continued in 2025 and into 2026.

Similar allegations have marred prominent high school football programs in Southern California in recent years.

A lawsuit in 2024 details a sexual assault against a sophomore football player at Santa Margarita Catholic High School in Rancho Santa Margarita that triggered a police investigation and left the boy with post-traumatic stress disorder, severe depression and anxiety. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department investigated after the boy went to a hospital emergency room and alleged he had been sexually assaulted.

Santa Margarita principal Cheri Wood admitted in emails obtained by the Orange County Register that “at least 8” other players were allegedly assaulted by their teammates in a similar manner. The lawsuit was dismissed after a confidential out-of-court settlement was reached. The coach at the time was replaced by former NFL quarterback Carson Palmer, and Santa Margarita won a state title in 2025 and currently sits atop The Times’ high school football rankings.

A Rancho Cucamonga Los Osos High football player placed in a chokehold and whipped with a belt by two older players in a locker room in 2023 was initially described by Chaffey Joint Union High School District officials as “horseplay.” However, a video of the victim begging and screaming was circulated widely online and the district reversed its position, reclassified the event as prohibited hazing and issued undisclosed student disciplinary measures.

A 2021 lawsuit shined a light on players at Santa Ana Mater Dei High — one of the most celebrated football programs in the nation — being severely beaten by other players in a brutal hazing ritual called “bodies.” The family of a victim who suffered a traumatic brain injury and a broken nose filed a lawsuit against Mater Dei and the Diocese of Orange, alleging the Mater Dei administration covered up the incident.

“You drop your kids off at school and give them a kiss goodbye … and you feel like you’re putting them somewhere they can be safe,” the victim’s mother told The Times. “I felt like Mater Dei had the highest protection, I felt my kid would be safe there. Then for them to turn a blind eye and be so unsupervised. … It’s like, you failed my child.”

Meghan Markle is “distressed” following reports that her half-brother Thomas Markle Jr. found explicit material involving minors in their father’s possession.

On Thursday, British tabloid the Sun reported that Thomas Jr. claimed he’d found “hundreds, if not thousands” of child pornography images inside four large boxes at the Cebu, Philippines, home of his father, Thomas Markle Sr., and contacted authorities.

Meghan’s team issued a statement to The Times on Friday, writing that she was “deeply distressed” by the news.

“My thoughts are with any children who may have been harmed,” she said.

“In 2018, a letter was sent to the Metropolitan Police and Royalty and Specialist Protection. That letter was subsequently shared with me. It made troubling and disturbing allegations against my father and I was given assurances that these were being investigated,” she continued, adding, “I hope it can now be understood that, despite certain media publications’ distortion over the years, any distance from my father and my choice to not allow him to have contact with our children, was for one reason: to protect them.”

The Duchess of Sussex said that she trusted authorities were “doing the same for other families.”

“Although the breadth of what has now been uncovered is more sickening than one could ever imagine, my sincerest hope is that justice will be fully served and that the priority remains the safety and protection of innocent children.”

Meghan’s relationship with her 82-year-old father has been the subject of media scrutiny since 2018, when she and Prince Harry tied the knot. Thomas Markle Sr. did not attend the wedding.

The Met Police told People that they are looking to confirm the passing of a letter in 2018. The FBI did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment, but told People that the agency is aware of the allegations, will investigate any related allegations of federal violations of U.S. law, and “will provide support, as appropriate, to the Philippine authorities.”

Thomas Markle Sr. denied the accusations on Friday, calling them “bulls—” and “lies.” He told the Daily Mail that he was “shocked” and “hurt” by his son’s claims and that he “could never do” what he’s being accused of.

“It’s the worst thing anyone could accuse me of. … I have no idea why Tom is trying to destroy me with these lies.”

Thomas Markle Jr. did not immediately respond on Friday to The Times’ request for comment, and Thomas Markle Sr. could not be reached for comment.

The news comes shortly after Meghan and Prince Harry closed their California chapter and returned to England with their children, Archie, 7, and Lilibet, 5.