Claims extracted
26
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
19%
5 of 26 hedged
("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
95/100
Toronto Sun's corrections and
hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
unclustered
not grouped into a story yet
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Disgraced comedian Russell Brand’s attitudes towards sex, women and consent have come under scrutiny once again following his conviction for rape and sexual assault.
asserted
attitudes → come → rape
A disturbing account from Brand’s childhood involving his own father, Ron Brand, may explain where those attitudes first developed.
uncertain
attitudes → involve → father
The U.K.’s Daily Mail revisited revelations from Brand’s memoir, “My Booky Wook,” in which Brand recounts his father allegedly introducing his teenage son to prostitutes, exposing him to pornography and openly bringing women to the home for sex.
uncertain
father → revisit → sex
Brand, 51, has just been sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison after last week being convicted of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault involving four women between 1999 and 2009.
asserted
Brand → sentence → 1999
He was acquitted of two other rape charges and one count of attempted indecent assault.
asserted
He → acquit → assault
He was also placed on the sex offender registry for life.
asserted
He → place → life
He also remains under investigation for other rape allegations made by two different women.
asserted
He → remain → women
The book recounts an instance when Brand was 17 years old.
asserted
Brand → recount → instance
According to the memoir, he travelled with his father to Hong Kong, where Ron reportedly hired three prostitutes — two for himself and one for his son.
uncertain
Ron → accord → son
While his father was off with the two prostitutes, Brand had an encounter with the third, his introduction to paid sex.
asserted
Brand → have → sex
Brand said the experience helped define his relationship with women.
asserted
experience → say → women
He reflected that his sexuality had turned “from bewildered innocence into something more complex and rapacious.”
asserted
sexuality → reflect → something
His father, who has never denied or disputed the claims made about him in the memoir, reportedly said, “I went away with a boy and came back with a man.”
uncertain
I → deny → man
Father and son appear to confirm the account in a 2002 clip from Brand’s documentary RE:Brand, jovially recalling the Hong Kong episode and laughing about it.
asserted
Father → appear → it
Brand calls his father, “a devilish character with a twinkle in his eye.”
asserted
Brand → call → eye
Dad left porn lying around
Brand also recalled his dad leaving pornographic magazines and videos lying around while he was still in primary school, and being left alone while his father brought strange women back to his apartment.
asserted
father → leave → apartment
In another incident, Brand remembers a family holiday at a British resort when he discovered his father in bed with another child’s mother, describing the naked woman jumping up and down when he entered the room as a memory permanently etched in his mind.
asserted
he → remember → mind
Prosecution used memoir
asserted
Prosecution → use → memoir
The prosecutor in Brand’s trial, Riel Karmy-Jones, heavily leaned on content from Brand’s memoir in his case against him.
asserted
prosecutor → lean → him
One victim told the court she believed Brand was effete and gay when they met at a 1999 Labour Party event, and the pair ended up in her hotel room.
asserted
pair → tell → room
Karmy-Jones pointed out in Brand’s book a picture of Brand as a seven-year-old with the caption: “This is the exact moment when I decided to act gay to attract girls.
asserted
I → point → girls
It took 15 years to produce results.”
asserted
It → take → results
Karmy-Jones quoted Brand again: “My egotism and the single-mindedness with which I pursued potentially sexual conquests could often make me uneasy company…
uncertain
me → quote → conquests
Now if I want something – whether it’s a job or a woman – I will determinedly, resolutely, remove anything that’s in the way, until I possess the object of my desire.”
asserted
I → want → desire
In his book, Brand call himself a “fervid, febrile mass of sexual energy.”
asserted
Brand → call → energy
I’m demonically sexy,” Brand writes.
asserted
Brand → ’m → ?
The Aporia
