US Election 2016: Trump ‘groped woman like an octopus’

Two women have told the New York Times that Donald Trump touched them inappropriately, but the Republican candidate’s campaign denies the report.

One woman said the White House hopeful grabbed her breasts and attempted to put his hand up her skirt on a flight three decades ago.

The second woman said Mr Trump kissed her on the mouth against her will at Trump Towers in 2005.

Mr Trump’s campaign said “this entire article is fiction”.

The New York Times was launching “a completely false, coordinated character assassination,” a statement from his campaign said.

Jessica Leeds, 74, from Manhattan, told the paper she had been sitting next to Mr Trump in the first-class cabin of a flight to New York when he lifted the armrest and began to touch her.

She was 38 years old at the time.

“He was like an octopus… his hands were everywhere,” she said. “It was an assault.”

‘So upset’

Rachel Crooks was a 22-year-old receptionist at a real estate company in Trump Tower when she said she was kissed on the lips by Mr Trump outside a lift in the building.

“It was so inappropriate,” Ms Crooks told the New York Times.

“I was so upset that he thought I was so insignificant that he could do that.”

Neither women has ever reported their accounts to the authorities, but both shared what happened to them with friends and family.

Ms Leeds said she was “angry and shook up” after Mr Trump touched her.

She said she quickly left the first-class cabin and returned to economy.

Ms Leeds said she had largely put the encounter out of her mind until last year, when Mr Trump’s presidential campaign took off.

“His behaviour is deep-seated in his character,” she said. “To those who would vote for him, I would wish for them to reflect on this.”

Ms Crooks said she “started hysterically crying” to her boyfriend after Mr Trump kissed her.

She said Mr Trump later asked for her phone number, which he said he wanted to pass on to his modelling agency, but she never heard from them.

On coming forward, she said: “People should know… this behaviour is pervasive and it is real.” BBC News