Former Ontario PC Party Leader Patrick Brown is calling sexual misconduct allegations levelled against him by two women “absolute lies,” according to a story published by Postmedia.
“It was like getting hit by a truck and you’re in a state of shock,” Brown told the media company in his first interview since he resigned on Jan. 25.
“When we looked at the allegations in detail, we were able to show that they’re absolute lies and we can prove it.”
In an article published on the Toronto Sun website Friday, Brown said he is considering legal action in response to the allegations.
“It’s an execution before the trial. It’s frontier justice … That’s why I’m strongly considering a legal recourse,” he said.
The comments come after Brown resigned hours after CTV News published a report saying two women came forward accusing him of sexual misconduct.
CTV said one of the allegations is from over 10 years ago and involved a high school student, while the other incident involved a woman working for the MP in then-prime minister Stephen Harper’s government in 2012.
The women weren’t named, and the allegations haven’t been proven in court.
One woman, who’s now 29 years old, said Brown propositioned her during a tour of his home while she was still in high school. He allegedly asked her to perform oral sex, which she did for a short while before leaving, in a second-floor bedroom more than a decade ago.
Brown told Postmedia that incident didn’t happen.
“’I remember her being a girl in Barrie,’ Brown said but otherwise doesn’t know her or recall meeting her,” the article said.
“I did the math – in 2007, I didn’t live in the home where I had a second floor bedroom.”
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The story said Brown showed reporters affidavits from neighbouring office staff “attesting to the configuration of the building and a Barrie real estate professional involved with the property at that time confirmed Brown lived in the downstairs apartment.”
A second woman said she was working for him as an MP in 2012 when he invited her and another person back to his place after a party. When they were alone, he allegedly kissed her and “got on top of her,” CTV reported. She described it as sexual assault.
Brown “forcefully” denied the allegations by the second woman, the article said.
“The reality is she kissed me,” he said.
“I had gone up to my bedroom. I wanted to look at the social media coverage from the night… and she followed me upstairs.”
The Sun said when it contacted the other person to get their understanding of what happened.
“He did go into the bedroom to charge his phone, the friend, who asked not to be identified, said, but never saw her and Patrick alone,” the story said.
According to the article, reporters contacted both complainants cited in the CTV report.
“Postmedia contacted both complainants. One is in Indonesia for a month, and on Friday removed all content from her Facebook page but did not respond,” the article said.
“The second complainant when contacted said, ‘I’ve already given my account of the events that took place that evening, and I stand by it.’”
Postmedia said they spoke with a woman who said she dated him at the time of the incident. Mikaela Patterson is quoted talking about the night of the party.
“We went back to his house and the girl was kind of following him around which annoyed me … and then Patrick ended up driving her home… and he spent the rest of the evening with me and Katie, my girlfriend,” she said.
“There was no sign of anyone distressed, like she didn’t seem distressed or anything like that.”
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Patterson said Brown didn’t mention the kiss and doesn’t believe the report, the article said.
“He’s not that kind of a guy,” she said.
— With files from Rebecca Joseph