Daily Star payst 'substantial' damages

Russell Brand has accepted substantial libel damages over a tabloid story that wrongly linked him to an alleged rape at the flat he rented during last year’s Edinburgh Festival.

The comic sued the Daily Star over a front page article headlined ‘Brand In Rape Quiz - I was drugged, claims girl, 20.’

His lawyer, Paul Fox, claimed the paper insinuated Brand was responsible.

He told the High Court that the newspaper also ran another headline: ‘I was drugged and raped in BB star Brand's flat.’

‘The meaning of the article was that there were reasonable grounds to suspect that the claimant drugged and raped a young woman,’ he told the court. ‘This was totally untrue.

‘The claimant was never suspected of the alleged rape nor was there any evidence at all to involve him in its circumstances. Rather, at the police's request, he assisted them as a witness.’

Brand had asked the Star to apologise, but they refused - until he sued them.

Express Newspapers, which publishes the Daily Star, agreed to pay Brand's legal costs and substantial, but undisclosed, damages.

The group’s lawyer, Nicole Patterson, said: ‘The defendant regrets publishing the article and its initial refusal to apologise. The defendant offers its sincere apologies.’

Mr Fox added: ‘Mr Brand feels that he has been vindicated in proceedings it was necessary for him to bring and is content to let the matter rest.’

Brand, 32, was not in court for the hearing

Published: 21 Jun 2007