A newspaper reported that four women had accused British comedian and actor Russell Brand of sexual assaults, including rape, over a seven-year period while he was at the height of his career. Brand has denied any criminal misconduct, however.

A denial of unnamed “very serious criminal allegations” was made by Brand, 48, the estranged spouse of US singer Katy Perry, hours before the allegations were posted online by the newspaper on Saturday.

In a video message posted on social media, Brand said the accusations contained “a litany of extremely egregious and aggressive attacks as well as some pretty stupid stuff”.

“But amidst this litany of astonishing rather baroque attacks are some very serious allegations that I absolutely refute,” he said. “These allegations pertain to the time when I was working in the mainstream, when I was in the newspapers all the time when I was in the movies. And as I’ve written about extensively in my books, I was very, very promiscuous,” Brand said. “Now, during that time of promiscuity, the relationships I had were absolutely always consensual.”

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.Brand was once one of Britain’s most high-profile comedians, known for his flamboyant style and appearance. He was a regular on television and radio, including working for the BBC, during the 2000s while he also starred in a number of films such as “Get Him to the Greek”.

He married Perry in a lavish wedding in India in 2010 but filed for divorce just 14 months later. He now mainly focuses on online projects and has a large following for his regular podcasts and shows on social media. “I don’t mind them using my books and my stand-up to talk about my promiscuous consensual conduct in the past,” he said in his video message. “What I seriously refute are these very, very serious criminal allegations.”