Platell questions Ross’s claim he knew nothing of Brand and Walliams allegations

Amanda Platell questions Jonathan Ross’s statement that he was unaware of allegations about David Walliams and Russell Brand when they were friends. She argues that Ross’s past jokes and his participation in a 2008 radio prank make his claim hard to believe, and suggests his statement may be intended to protect his reputation.

Ross said he was horrified by the revelations and that he had been genuinely unaware of the men’s conduct during their friendship. Walliams denies allegations of grooming and abuse; the article says Brand was jailed for more than ten years after being convicted of rape and sexual assault. Ross has said a 2004 joke about Walliams and a 15-year-old was supplied by the Comedy Awards’ writers and that he understood it as referring to Walliams’s public relationships with younger women.