US Senate candidate accused of sexual contact with minor in 1979

Republican candidate for the US Senate in Alabama, Roy Moore speaks to reporters at an election-night rally after declaring victory on September 26, 2017 in Montgomery, Alabama. (Photo by AFP)

The Republican Party's candidate likely to win Alabama's Senate race next month is accused of inappropriate sexual conduct with a 14-year-old girl in 1979, a new report says.

According to the report published on Thursday in The Washington Post,Leigh Corfman, now 53, said when she was 14 Roy Moore took her into his house in the woods near Gadsden, Alabama, removed her shirt and pants, and was involved in offensive behavior.   

"I wasn't ready for that," Corfman told the Post.

Three other women also talked to the newspaper. They said that Moore had approached them around a similar time, when they were between the ages of 16 and 18.

Moore was then in his early thirties working as an assistant district attorney.

Moore and his campaign rejected the allegations of sexual impropriety and called the Post story "fake news."

Leigh Corfman, left, in a photo from 1979, when she was about 14. At right, from top, Wendy Miller around age 16, Debbie Wesson Gibson around age 17 and Gloria Thacker Deason around age 18. (Family photos)

"After over 40 years of public service (by Moore), if any of these allegations were true, they would have been made public long before now," the Moore campaign said in an email to supporters.

“These allegations are completely false and are a desperate political attack by the National Democrat Party and the Washington Post on this campaign,” Moore, now 70, said.

Moore is now facing calls to step aside. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that if the accusations are accurate, Moore should drop out of the race. "If these allegations are true, he must step aside.”

Moore is running for the Senate seat which was vacated by Jeff Sessions, who was named by Trump to lead the Justice Department earlier this year.