Brand defends his friend over rape charge

UPDATE: All charges against Lock were later dropped by police. 

Russell Brand has defended his friend Trevor Lock after he was arrested over an alleged rape.

Lock, 33, was this week charged with the alleged assault on a 20-year-old student at Brand's Edinburgh flat during the Fringe.

He is not being held in custody, but did not show up for his normal sidekick role on Brand's 6 Music show this morning.

Brand told listeners: 'The reason he's not here is obvious. Trevor emphatically denies the charges and if - and it's a big if - it goes to court, he will of course plead not guilty.

'He'll be back here before you know it with his head held high.'

He also sent messages of support to his friend, who is lined up to support him on his forthcoming tour of the UK, saying the theme of the programme would be 'innocence' and dedicating most the songs to him.

Lothian and Borders Police, who arrested Lock in London, will now submitted a report to the procurator fiscal, the Scottish public prosecutor, which will decide whether to take the case to court.

Brand, 31, had been renting the property in the city's New Town where the alleged attack was supposed to have happened during the Fringe. He too was quizzed by detectives as part of their investigation into the alleged assault, said to have taken place during a party in the flat on August 28.

A police spokesman confirmed: ‘A 33-year-old man has been arrested and charged in connection with an alleged incident at a flat in Edinburgh.’

Lock was a regular alongside Stewart Lee and Richard Herring on their BBC Two show This Morning With Richard Not Judy in the Nineties. He also appeared in Al Murray’s Sky One sitcom Time Gentleman Pleasse

But he is also a stand-up in his own right, and performed at the 1999 Edinburgh festival in The Number One Show alongside Daniel Kitson and Andrew Maxwell.

Published: 10 Sep 2006