Accused molester and US Senate candidate Roy Moore arrives on horseback to vote as sister says ‘every single woman is lying’

“Don’t frighten the horses” was the plea to a rolling scrum of cameramen and reporters on Tuesday as the controversial Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore cast his vote in remote, rural Alabama.

Moore and his wife, Kayla, rode through woods on their horses Sassy and Sundance to a polling station in tiny Gallant on a chilly, grey December day. When they departed a few minutes later, an aide shouted anxiously: “Get away with the cameras, everybody. You’re going to frighten the horses!”

The candidate himself, wearing a cowboy hat, warned: “You all better back up,” in case the animals made a sudden charge.

It was a typically peculiar episode at the end of Moore’s profoundly strange battle with the Democrat Doug Jones for the vacant Senate seat in Alabama, typically a Republican heartland that Donald Trump, who has endorsed Moore, won in a landslide last year. But the former judge is facing multiple allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct, including that he touched a 14-year-old girl inappropriately. He denies all the claims.

His appearance at the polling place, hosted by a fire station in Gallant, attracted TV crews from Australia, Britain and other parts of Europe as well as the US. As Moore rode past, one reporter asked how he was feeling. “Pretty good,” he replied.

There was a headlong dash to watch Moore dismount. Then he was mobbed and chaos ensued. The horse looked unsettled and some journalists stepped back warily.