// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
Brand made £3k donation to rape charity year after committing offence himself
Brand is now serving a prison sentence of 10 years and six months
Russell Brand made a donation to a rape crisis charity in his hometown a year after committing the offence himself, it has emerged.
The donation of £3,000 was given to South Essex Rape and Incest Crisis Centre (SERICC) in the disgraced entertainer's name, to help pay for its 25th anniversary party.
The charity, based at Grays, in Thurrock, Essex, received the money in late 2010. Brand has since been convicted of raping a 21-year-old woman in 2009.
SERICC founder Sheila Coates said: "He supported four or five local charities in the area he was from, but this is really about his abuse of power, the other part of the Russell Brand personality."
The charity had no dealings with Brand directly but received the donation from his management team to help pay for a party at a venue called Orsett Hall in December 2010.
Coates added: "We were engaged in fundraising activity and wrote to lots of famous people and asked for a donation and he happened to be on the list.
"We were responded to by his management, not him, he wasn't in the country. We had no contact with him at all."
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