Sen. Scott Brown, the Massachusetts Republican who shocked the nation by claiming Edward M. Kennedy’s Senate seat last year, has revealed that he was a victim of sexual and physical abuse as a child.

In an interview scheduled to air Sunday on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Brown said he was molested by a counselor at a camp in Cape Cod, Mass., when he was 10 years old.

“He said, ‘If you tell anybody, I’ll kill you,” Brown recounted to correspondent Lesley Stahl. He said his mother didn’t know about the abuse.

“That’s what happens when you’re a victim. You’re embarrassed. You’re hurt,” Brown said in the interview. “Fortunately, nothing was ever fully consummated, so to speak, but it was certainly, back then, very traumatic.”


Brown, 51, has written a book, “Against All Odds,” in which he also recounts physical abuse at the hands of several stepfathers. In the interview, he recounts an instance when he contemplated buying a house where he lived with one of his stepfathers so that he could “burn it down” as a cathartic act.

“I actually called the realtor and went in and took the tour and relived kind of where everything was … to make sure I wasn’t … dreaming,” he said in the interview. “As I left, I said, ‘Man, I wish I had the money. I’d just buy this thing and burn it down.’ ”

Last year, the former state legislator beat a heavily favored Democratic candidate in a special election to replace the late Kennedy. Brown will run again for a full Senate term in 2012.

joliphant@latimes.com


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