The comedian and actor Russell Brand was scheduled on Friday to appear before a London court on multiple charges of sexual assault, including two counts of rape.
His appearance at Westminster Magistrates Court will be the first, largely procedural, step in what are likely to be lengthy criminal proceedings. It comes a month after British prosecutors charged Mr. Brand with one count of rape, one of oral rape, two counts of sexual assault and another of indecent assault.
Prosecutors said in a news release last month that the charges related to “reported nonrecent offenses between 1999 and 2005, involving four women.”