A woman who accused Russell Brand of abusing her when she was 16 has named herself publicly for the first time, days after the comedian was sentenced to 10 and a half years in prison over separate sexual offence convictions.
Mia Latter, now 37, told the Sunday Times in an interview published Saturday that she had a three-month relationship with Brand in 2006, when she was studying for her AS-level exams and he was 30. She said the relationship derailed her education, left her dealing with depression, and that she never learned her exam results after her school attendance collapsed to around 30 percent.
“I don’t even know to this day how I did,” she said, adding she “didn’t complete [her] A-levels.” She said she felt “so much shame and embarrassment around the whole thing, that I let this stupid thing ruin my prospects,” and that it “took me a little while to feel as though I could put one foot in front of the other.”
Latter had previously been identified only as “Alice” in the Sunday Times’ 2023 investigation into Brand, and had appeared in silhouette under that pseudonym in a documentary. She told police about her allegations, but prosecutors did not bring her case as part of the trial that led to Brand’s conviction earlier this month. Brand has denied allegations of sexual wrongdoing.
He was sentenced on Monday following his conviction on Nov. 5 on multiple sexual offences, and is currently held at HMP Wandsworth in London pending a possible transfer. Six further women have since made allegations of sexual misconduct against him.
How she says the relationship began
Latter said she first met Brand, then working for MTV, in London’s Leicester Square as she walked home from shopping. “I’d bought my outfit for the weekend, and then Russell Brand approached me in the street, and asked to see in my bag,” she said. She said he went through her clothes and picked a dress for a date, and she gave him her phone number.
She said she told him she was 16 and expected that to end things, but he asked whether she still wanted to meet for dinner the next day. “There wasn’t even a moment’s hesitation,” she recalled. On their first date, on Easter Sunday, she alleged Brand told her: “I don’t give a f—k how old you are. I just need to know where I stand legally.”
She alleged he took her to a Spanish restaurant where she wasn’t offered food, and that when a waitress approached, Brand pointed out she wasn’t “old enough to drink,” so she was given a Diet Coke instead. She said he then took her to his apartment, where she initially resisted going in and asked him to call her a cab, and that he told her: “I promise I won’t get my cock out.” She alleged that once inside, he left the room, returned in a dressing gown, and performed oral sex on her. “I remember closing my legs and trying to push him away a little bit,” she said, alleging he said “No” and promised nothing else would happen before she left. “And ultimately, he did get his penis out, but I didn’t touch it,” she said. “And then my car came.”
Allegations of further abuse
Latter alleged Brand referred to her as “the child” around his staff but told her to keep the relationship secret from her school friends. “It wasn’t a secret on his end, but it had to be a secret on my end,” she said. She said he also told her not to send him explicit photos, which she found contradictory given she could “have sex with this much older man” but not send pictures. She alleged he once wrapped her in a towel, carried her around calling her a “little dolly,” and asked her to read Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita.” She said her parents tried to stop her seeing him, but cars kept being sent to collect her. “He wasn’t interested in me for me,” she said. “I felt like this is his fetish. He likes me because I’m 16 and a virgin … I could’ve been any other 16-year-old.”
Latter alleged that toward the end of the relationship, Brand orally raped her. “He ended up forcing me against the headboard [of the bed] and I couldn’t move, and he orally raped me — and I was choking and crying,” she said. “I was trying to push him off, so he knew that I didn’t want him to be doing that, and so then I ended up having to hit him in the stomach to get him off.” She alleged he then told her: “I just wanted to see your mascara run.” She further alleged he pinned her down, forced her mouth open and made her swallow bile, which she described as “degradation” and “vile.”
She said the relationship ended after about three months when she arrived at his home and found she was blocked from entering, discovering another woman in his bedroom and meeting a third woman on her way out. She said she and that third woman later compared notes and realised they had received similarly worded messages from Brand.
Disputing Brand’s account
Latter pushed back on Brand’s past comments to Megyn Kelly that the relationship “was immoral, it wasn’t illegal.” “Well, actually something illegal happened within that relationship,” she said. She also rejected his suggestion that he was “immature” for his age at the time. “He was a homeowner who was hosting TV shows, hosting radio shows. He wasn’t living at home [or] some schoolboy who was lost,” she said. “He was a very successful man who had a lot of power and sway in the industry. Whereas I was a 16-year-old with no life experience, no sexual experience and no prior relationships. What was my level of maturity meant to be?”
Campaigning for legal change
Latter is now campaigning for a “staggered” age of consent that would make it a criminal offence for significantly older adults to have sexual relationships with 16- and 17-year-olds. “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 offense,” she said.
She said she was “very nervous” about going public but felt “it’s not my burden to carry anymore.” Now married with a daughter, she praised the women whose testimony led to Brand’s conviction. “They put him away,” she said. “Some women didn’t get the guilty verdict, but it was definitely a team effort, and I will forever be grateful to them. I’d waited since I was 16 thinking, ‘It’s gonna happen soon — somebody’s gonna out him’ … I feel like justice has been served.”
A legal representative for Brand did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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