Russell Brand ‘liked’ cryptic Phillip Schofield meme with Dispatches hashtag hours before show aired rape claims

And the 48-year-old liked a post between Friday night and Saturday around 24 hours before the expose aired on Channel 4.

The odd tweet featured a GIF of Schofield smiling on This Morning with the caption: "If only #Dispatches".

Brand has only liked one other tweet since - a photo of a group at a jiu-jitsu lifestyle summit.

Phil stepped down in May from This Morning after confessing he'd had an affair with a young runner.

ITV launched an external investigation and it is due to report back this month.

A joint investigation by The Times, Sunday Times and Channel 4's Dispatches includes allegations Brand assaulted one of the women when she was a 16-year-old schoolgirl.

Another woman has claimed he raped her against a wall in his home in Los Angeles.

The Times reports several other women have since come forward with fresh claims about Brand.

One woman, using the fake name Lisa, told the paper the actor had sung about the Soham killer Ian Huntley during a consensual sexual encounter in 2008.

She said: "He started talking about Ian Huntley, the paedophile and child killer, and mentioned it quite a few times, like in a joking way, but also made up a whole song about it.

"I just couldn't understand why you would be able to have sex and talk about a child killer at the same time."

Another woman, known as Esme, told the Times Brand had been threatening and verbally abusive towards her when she refused to have sex with him.

Before the first allegations were published, Brand posted a video on Friday saying he has been "promiscuous" but that all of his relationships have been "consensual".