Former President George H.W. Bush has been accused of groping another woman. According to TIME magazine, Roslyn Corrigan was 16 years old when she met the then 79-year-old ex-president at an event in The Woodlands, Texas. Corrigan, whose father worked for the CIA at the time, attended the event with her family and the families of other intelligence officials. That’s when, while posing for a photograph with Bush, she claims he grabbed her buttocks without consent. Corrigan is the sixth woman to come forward with similar groping accusations against Bush since late October.
Although she has told the story to close friends and family before, Corrigan says the reactions were generally “dismissive.” Now that five other women have made their stories known, however, she “feels emboldened to speak out,” as she told TIME during her first public comments on the matter:
“My initial action was absolute horror. I was really, really confused. The first thing I did was look at my mom and, while he was still standing there, I didn’t say anything. What does a teenager say to the ex-president of the United States? Like, ‘Hey dude, you shouldn’t have touched me like that?'”
Despite her story’s previous dismissals, Corrigan is determined to press forward. “I don’t know, maybe it never really hit people that I was a child at the time and that goes beyond a guy being inappropriate in the workplace to a peer or somebody in his age range,” she concludes. “I was a child.” In a statement, Bush’s spokesperson Jim McGrath said, “George Bush simply does not have it in his heart to knowingly cause anyone harm or distress, and he again apologizes to anyone he may have offended during a photo op.” Meanwhile, Corrigan’s mother, Sari confirmed her story with TIME.
(Via TIME)