Russell Brand’s alleged victims should be believed, says Andrew Sachs’ granddaughter

Russell Brand’s alleged victims should be believed, Andrew Sachs’ granddaughter has said.

Georgina Baillie had a relationship with the comedian in the 2000s and was embroiled in the “Sachsgate” scandal after Brand and Jonathan Ross left lewd messages about the affair on the Fawlty Towers actor’s answer machine during a BBC Radio 2 show.

In an interview with Piers Morgan, Ms Baillie said she “doesn’t see Russell Brand as a rapist” from her “own personal experience”.

But, she refused to say the allegations made by four women about sexual abuse between 2006 and 2013 were lies because she wanted to “keep an open mind”, adding that women’s accounts of sexual abuse should be believed.

Brand, 48, has vehemently denied the allegations and insisted that all his sexual relationships have been consensual.

Asked about her reaction to the claims during a TalkTV interview to be broadcast on Piers Morgan Uncensored on Tuesday evening, Ms Baille, 38, said: “Initially, first of all, I have been a survivor of sexual abuse and I will always believe victims because why wouldn’t you? … Accusers? It depends, I wasn’t in the room, we don’t know what happened there.

“But my initial thought was, ‘Oh my god, I’m glad I’m not Russell’. Because it’s behaviour he was doing when he wasn’t well. When you are an addict, you can cross-addict … you can be off booze and drugs but if you are not on a programme you can be acting out a sex addiction, or a food addiction. And he wasn’t working a programme and as an addict in recovery, I know he wasn’t well.”

Ms Baille experienced addiction problems “for about 10 to 15 years”, beginning before the Sachsgate scandal of 2008.

She described her relationship with Brand as being a “friends with benefits situation”, adding that he had helped her pay for treatment at a rehabilitation unit.

She agreed with Morgan that if Brand was struggling with addiction at the time he was alleged to have carried out any sexual assault, his personal problems could not be used as a justification.

“It doesn’t,” she added.

Asked if she recognised the man being accused in the media reports, she replied: “No I don’t but I’m not saying they are lies because you know, it was a long time ago. We all… I think they should be believed and get some help. Because part of the recovery programme - you must make amends for these things. That’s what he did for me and hopefully, he will do the same for the others.”

Ms Baillie came to prominence when her brief relationship with Brand emerged during the 2008 Sachsgate scandal.

Brand and fellow Radio 2 presenter, Jonathan Ross, phoned the late actor and left messages on his voicemail. During the recording, Brand bragged about having had a sexual relationship with Sachs’ granddaughter, Ms Baillie. At the time of their relationship, Brand was 30 and Ms Baillie was 20.

Brand was sacked from his BBC radio show after thousands of complaints were lodged with the broadcaster.

Asked about the scandal, Ms Baillie said: “It wasn’t pleasant. I was very young at the time, I was 23 years old when this story broke. It was a very unnerving time. Not only had my grandparents heard what I had been up to sexually - which anybody would recoil at - but then it was all the “boys will be boys” attitude. “She’s only a slut anyway, so who cares”. That was their only line of defence, to slut shame me, basically.”

She explained how Brand’s help when she was battling addiction appeared to be an attempt to apologise for the Sachsgate debacle.

“I was struggling with addiction for about 10-15 years and I was finding it very hard to get clean and sober. So one of my mutual friends between me and Russell called him up and said, ‘Georgie needs some help’, and so he sent me to rehab. And so I was physically separated from my drug of choice and I got some therapy and I think that had a big part to play in my recovery journey.

“He looked me in the eyes and he made his amends to me… he acknowledged it was a private relationship and it shouldn’t have been made public.

“At the time he had two daughters and it really made him grow and change and I felt it was genuine and I felt he was sorry.”