Leigh Corfman, who accused the Alabama Senate candidate of attack in 1979 when she was 14, said: ‘It took years for me to regain confidence in myself’

The woman who first spoke out to accuse Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore of sexually assaulting her when she was 14 said on Monday it took her a long time to get her self-esteem back after she blamed herself for what she says happened.

Leigh Corfman was 14 in 1979 when she alleges Moore, then 32, took her to his house, removed most of her clothes, groped her and put her hand on his genitals. He took her back to her home when she told him she was uncomfortable and wanted to leave, but she was emotionally scarred for decades after, she said.

Moore denies the allegations.

Quick guide Gay bans and praise for Putin: the world according to Roy Moore Show Hide Homosexuality should be illegal In 2005, Moore said: “Homosexual conduct should be illegal.” In an interview televised on C-Span, Moore added: “It is immoral. It is defined by the law as detestable.” During a debate in September 2017, he went out of his way to bemoan the fact that “sodomy [and] sexual perversion sweep the land”. September 11 attacks as divine punishment In a speech in February, Moore appeared to suggest that the terrorist attacks of September 11 were the result of divine retribution against the United States and prophesized in the Book of Isaiah. In comments first reported by CNN, Moore quoted Isaiah 30:12-13, saying: “Because you have despised His word and trust in perverseness and oppression, and say thereon ... therefore this iniquity will be to you as a breach ready to fall, swell out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instance.” Moore then noted: “Sounds a little bit like the Pentagon, whose breaking came suddenly at an instance, doesn’t it?” He added: “If you think that’s coincidence, if you go to verse 25: ‘There should be up on every high mountain and upon every hill, rivers and streams of water in the day of the great slaughter when the towers will fall.’" Praise for Putin In an interview with the Guardian in August, Moore praised Putin for his views on gay rights. “Maybe Putin is right. Maybe he’s more akin to me than I know.” The comments came after Moore suggested the United States could be described as “the focus of evil in the world” because “we promote a lot of bad things”. Moore specifically named gay marriage as one of those “bad things”.

'Reds and yellows’ At a rally earlier in September, Moore talked about “reds and yellows fighting” while discussing racial division in the United States. Moore justified this on Twitter by citing lyrics from the song Jesus Loves the Little Children. He wrote “Red, yellow, black and white they are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world. This is the Gospel.” Tracking livestock is communism In 2006, Moore condemned a proposal for a national ID system for animals as “more identifiable with communism than free enterprise”. The proposal received attention after a cow in Alabama had been diagnosed with mad cow disease. Moore, who was then running for governor, was skeptical that the outbreak was real. Instead, Moore suggested it was a ruse intended to promote the tracking system.



“I felt guilty, I felt I was the one to blame. It took years for me to regain confidence in myself,” Corfman told NBC’s Today show on Monday morning. “I was a child trying to play in an adult world. I had been reading romances and I was expecting candlelight and roses, and what I got was very different,” she said.

Corfman said she had slipped out from her home to meet Moore without telling anyone. Moore, then an assistant district attorney, had approached her as she sat with her mother on a bench in the hallway of the courthouse where he worked and struck up an acquaintance. Later, he called and asked her out.

“I would not exactly call it a date, it was a meet. At 14 I was not dating,” she said. “I met him around the corner from my house and my mother didn’t know.”

Moore, a former judge, is the Republican candidate for the special election in Alabama taking place on 12 December to fill the seat vacated when the Republican US senator Jeff Sessions was appointed attorney general by Donald Trump.

But in recent weeks, nine women have come forward to accuse him of a variety of inappropriate behavior ranging from pestering them for dates as teens to the alleged assault on Corfman as a 14-year-old, as first revealed by the Washington Post.

Moore denies all the allegations. The Republican party nationally has withdrawn support for him but, although he is behind in the polls, the party in Alabama continues to support him.

On Monday, Corfman said that after she agreed to meet Moore, he took her to his house in the woods and put blankets on the floor of the living room.

“And proceeded to seduce me, I guess you would say,” she said.

After he removed most of her clothing, he left the room and returned in his underwear. He touched her sexually over what remained of her clothing, she said.

“He tried to get me to touch him as well. At that point I pulled back and said I was not comfortable and I got dressed and he took me home.”

She told some close friends, who advised her to shun him.. The next time he called she made excuses. But the effects of that encounter affected her emotional wellbeing and future relationships, she said.

“It took away a lot of the specialness about interactions with men. It took some trust away,” she said.

Later, she told more friends and her family. But she still felt guilty and as though the encounter had been her fault. “It took decades for me to let that go,” she said.

Several times as an adult and single mother she thought about confronting Moore at the courthouse, but she was afraid it would adversely affect her small children’s lives.

Alabama’s largest newspaper on Sunday called for voters to “stand for decency, reject Roy Moore”.

The revelations have come during an apparent watershed for revelations of sexual misconduct of public figures. The careers of film mogul Harvey Weinstein, comedian Louis CK, actor Kevin Spacey and others have been rocked in recent weeks.

In the fallout there have been widespread allegations against unnamed members of Congress and an apology from Democratic Senator Al Franken for assailing a female journalist during his comedy career days, as well as accusations by an Olympic gymnast against a team doctor, echoing a litany of past complaints in the sports world. This comes hard on the heels of the fall of senior figures at Fox News for sexual harassment and as the re-trial of TV comedy star Bill Cosby is awaited next year on rape charges.

In addition, multiple allegations of sexual predation and harassment against Donald Trump are still stalking the presidency, while his past boasting of getting away with sexual misconduct and intruding on beauty pageant contestants while they were changing, because he was famous, continues to resonate. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said last week that Bill Clinton should have resigned as president, amid a reappraisal of allegations, which he has denied, of sexual misconduct and exploitation during the 1980s and 1990s.

Trump has denied all the specific allegations against him by individuals. And he signaled via his spokeswoman last week that Roy Moore should step aside in the race “if these allegations are true”.

But Trump also needs the Senate seat from Alabama to remain in GOP hands, as he continues to struggle with getting any legislation passed in Congress. While Corfman was talking to NBC on Monday, Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, appeared on Fox News’s morning show hinting that voters should still cast their ballots for Moore.

“I’m telling you that we want the votes in the Senate to get this tax bill through,” Conway said.

Moore has said he does not know Corfman. “I wonder how many ‘me’s he doesn’t know,” she said wryly on Monday.

Asked about her political view on the subject, she said: “I have voted as a Republican for years and years and years but this is not political for me, this is personal. It’s very close to my heart,” she said.