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This is what Roy Moore has said about child abuse and sexual assault

Moore has been accused of initiating sexual encounters with girls as young as 14.

Former Alabama Chief Justice and U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore speaks at a rally, Monday, Sept. 25, 2017, in Fairhope, Ala. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Former Alabama Chief Justice and U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore speaks at a rally, Monday, Sept. 25, 2017, in Fairhope, Ala. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Republican candidate for Senate in Alabama, Roy Moore, initiated sexual abuse against underage girls as young as 14 years old, according to a bombshell report in the Washington Post published Thursday.

Four women gave on-the-record interviews to the Post, accounts that were supported by roughly 30 other sources.

Moore is known for his inflammatory rhetoric, particularly on “moral” and social issues.  Here is a round-up of his statements on sexual assault and child abuse.

Moore was the only vote in favor of a day care worker who raped a 4-year-old, claiming there was no ‘implied threat of serious physical injury’.

In 2015, while Moore was serving on the Alabama Supreme Court, he considered the case of Eric Lemont Higdon, a 17-year-old, who was convicted of raping a 4-year-old at a daycare center. Higdon was found guilty under a sodomy statute that applied specifically to minors, as well another statute prohibiting rape. The second conviction was overturned by an appeals court and sent to the state supreme court for review.

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Eight justices found that the 4-year-old’s fear of harm from a much older and larger individual was enough to establish “implied threat of serious physical injury” and reinstated Higdon’s conviction. Moore was the only dissent, saying that there was “no evidence in this case of an implied threat of serious physical injury.” Moore oddly argued that the court’s interpretation opened the door to a 10-year-old being found guilty of raping an 8-year-old.

The decision was featured in an ad in the Republican primary. The prosecutor seeking to reinstate Higdon’s conviction, Luther Strange, was Moore’s opponent.

He compared homosexuality to child abuse.

In 2002, the Alabama Supreme Court heard a case regarding a custody agreement in which a woman who had previously allowed her ex-husband to have primary custody of her children sued to modify the custody agreement because of reports that the children’s father had abused the children. The mother had since entered a same-sex relationship, and had initially lost in the trial court phase, but won on appeal when the appeals court found the father had indeed abused the children.

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The Alabama Supreme Court, however, reversed the appeal, which prompted Moore to filed a concurring a opinion stated the mother’s same-sex relationship is the reason she should not have custody over her children.

“The effect of such a lifestyle upon children must not be ignored, and the lifestyle should never be tolerated,” he wrote. “The common law designates homosexuality as an inherent evil, and if a person openly engages in such a practice, that fact alone would render him or her an unfit parent.”

He spoke out against ‘activist judges’ who let sexual offenders go free.

In 2010, Moore addressed a large crowd at William Penn University Penn Activity Center encouraging Christians “stand up” and become more politically active. During the speech he argued, among other things, that liberal, activist judges are stoking the fires of the culture war.

A local Alabama paper, the Oskaloosa Herald, wrote, ” Besides gay marriage, [Moore] said justices have let violent offenders and sex offenders go because they were not tried within 90 days.”

He blamed murder and child abuse on the country having forgotten about God.

As recently as September, Moore has stated America’s lack of faith in God for a multitude of immoral actions, including the 9/11 attacks.

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He told supporters at a church event, “People are getting killed in the streets. Washington, D.C.? People are getting killed in the streets. Chicago has the highest murder rate you can imagine. All across our land we have child abuse, we have sodomy, we have murder, we have rape, we have all kind of immoral things happening because we have forgotten God.”

Afterward, he read from a poem that included a line that read:

“Babies piled in dumpsters, abortion on demand,
Oh, sweet land of liberty, your house is on the sand.”