Scott Brown Tells '60 Minutes' He Was Sexually Abused
BOSTON (CBS) – Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown said he was sexually abused as a child several times by a camp counselor.
Brown made the stunning revelation in a 60 MINUTES interview with Lesley Stahl that will air Sunday February 20 on WBZ-TV and WBZ NewsRadio 1030. CBS News released an excerpt of the interview Wednesday afternoon.
Brown said even his mother doesn't know about the sexual abuse.
"That's what happens when you're a victim. You're embarrassed. You're hurt," Brown said.
WBZ-TV's Jonathan Elias reports.
Brown spoke of being touched and forced to touch the counselor.
"Fortunately, nothing was ever fully consummated, so to speak, but it was certainly, back then, very traumatic," he told Stahl, adding that the counselor came after him more than once.
"As predators do," Brown said. "He said 'If you tell anybody…I'll kill you. I will make sure that nobody believes you.'"
Excerpt From Scott Brown's interview with Leslie Stahl
In the interview Brown said he was also physically abused at home and was the victim of seven broken homes. He said all of that made him even more susceptible to such a predator.
"When people find people like me at that young vulnerable age, who are basically lost, the thing that they have over you is, they make you believe that no one will believe you."
Brown writes about the abuses and other childhood traumas in his upcoming book, "Against All Odds" set for release on Monday.
According to the Boston Globe, which obtained an early copy of Brown's book, the abuse occured at a religious camp on Cape Cod. Neither the name of the camp, nor the name of the counselor was revealed.
Brown said some of the abuse detailed in the book will be revelations to his wife and mother, but that the writing was an act of catharsis for him.
Jon Keller talks with a sex abuse expert
Brown also told Stahl about physical abuse he suffered at the hands of stepfathers, in one case saying he would like to have purchased the house in Wakefield where it occurred just so he could "burn it down."
"I actually called the realtor and went in and took the tour and relived kind of where everything was…to make sure I wasn't …dreaming. As I left, I said, 'Man, I wish I had the money. I'd just buy this thing and burn it down.'"
