Brand sorry for 'offensive' phone prank

17 July 2008 

British comedian RUSSELL BRAND has been forced to apologise over a recent phone prank - in which he claimed to have information about a serial sex attacker.
 
Detectives in the city of Northampton, England issued warnings to women in the area following a spate of violent rapes, and cops are currently appealing for information about the incidents.
 
Brand incurred the wrath of the police force by making a prank call to emergency services during a stand-up routine in the city on Saturday (12Jul08) - claming to have spotted the sex attacker.
 
The Forgetting Sarah Marshall star reportedly told the audience to be quiet while he made the call on stage, telling the police phone operator, "I've got some information for you. I've seen a gentleman who fits that description.
 
"He was wearing a lime-green top and polka-dot trousers. I thought, 'Well, look at the state of him.' He looked like (children's TV presenter) Timmy Mallett."
 
And now the funnyman has issued an apology over the incident.
 
He says in a statement, "I appreciate the seriousness of the issue and I am devastated by the possibility that I may have offended vulnerable people. I maintain that through discourse we can illuminate these dark behaviours but that ought not to be at the expense of people's feelings."