Roy Moore pleads for money to cover legal fees after being accused of paedophilia

Former judge and failed Senate candidate Roy Moore has appealed for help to meet his mounting legal costs, following a lawsuit from a woman who says he touched her inappropriately when she was aged 14.

In a post on Facebook, Mr Moore, who last year became the first Republican to lose a Senate race in Alabama for more than 20 years, said he needed to raise $250,000 (£181,000) to defend the lawsuit.

“I have no regrets! Together we fought the good fight, we finished our course and we have kept the faith. And we do not intend to quit! The future of our children and grandchildren is at stake,” the 71-year-old said of his defeat last December to Democrat Doug Jones.

“I now face another vicious attack from lawyers in Washington DC and San Francisco who have hired one of the biggest firms in Birmingham, Alabama, to bring another legal action against me and ensure that I never fight again.”

He added: “However, I will trust God that he will allow truth to prevail against the unholy forces of evil behind their attack.”

Mr Moore, who lost the race 50-48 despite having the support of President Donald Trump in a state where he had easily defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016, was the frontrunner until a series of women came forward to accuse him of sexual assault when they were teenagers and he was in his thirties and working as a local prosecutor. One woman said she was 14 when Mr Moore assaulted her.

Despite the claims, figures including Steve Bannon and Nigel Farage continued to support the former judge, saying they were unproven allegations and questioning why they had not been raised at the time they were said to have taken place.

While Mr Moore, an evangelical Christian, adamantly denied the accusations and his wife stood by him, his support began to slip once the allegations emerged. Ivanka Trump was among those who said she had no reason not to believe the women and suggested there was a “special place in hell” for people who abused children.

The legal action against Mr Moore, who was seeking to fill the senate seat vacated by Senator Jeff Sessions when he joined Mr Trump’s cabinet as Attorney General, was filed by Leigh Corfman, one of several woman who spoke to the media during the campaign.

She told The Washington Post that the former judge – who previously made international headlines when he had a 5,000lb piece of granite engraved with the Ten Commandments in his Montgomery court complex– took her to his house, undressed her and touched her. She said the incident happened in 1979 when she was 14 and he was 32.

In January, with the statute of limitations for seeking criminal action against the former judge having run out, Ms filed a civil defamation suit, claiming he had defamed her by denying her accusations and calling her a liar. It said he had questioned “her motivation for publicly disclosing that Mr Moore sexually abused her in 1979 when she was a 14-year-old high school freshman and he was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney”.

In his Facebook post, Mr Moore claimed “the liberal media, in association with some who want to destroy our country do not want my influence in the 2018 elections and are doing everything they can to stop me”.

He added: “Gays, lesbians and transgenders have joined forces with those who believe in abortion, sodomy, and destruction of all that we hold dear. Unless we stand together, we will lose our country.”

Mr Moore said the legal costs and public nature of the accusations he faces had taken a toll on his family and bank account. Reports suggest he has raised only $32,000 of the $250,000 he is hoping to collect.