NEW YORK — Former "7th Heaven" star Stephen Collins declares he's not a pedophile, and insists he has molested a minor on just one occasion and engaged in sexual misconduct with only three girls in all.
In an interview with Yahoo's Katie Couric released Friday, the embattled actor described himself instead as someone suffering from "exhibitionist urges," "big boundary issues" and "poor impulse control."
Those issues prompted a physical encounter with an underage girl in 1973. He was 25, she was 10.
According to Collins, the girl had come to visit and stay with him and his first wife. After his wife had gone to sleep, he and the girl were watching TV together.
"I took her hand and moved it in such a way that she was touching me inappropriately," he recalled. Then, after about 45 seconds, "I took her hand and moved it back. I waited a couple of minutes, because I just didn't know what to do or say. And then I got up and left the room." He called the incident "unthinkably wrong."
He also said he exposed himself to a teenage girl in 1982 and another in 1994. There was no physical conduct with either of the girls, who were 12 and 13, he said.
He said he has had no such urges since 1994, and claimed that if any other women come forward claiming to be victims of sexual misconduct by him, "it would not be truthful."
Collins, who is being investigated by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department on molestation allegations but has not been charged with any crime, characterized his actions with the girl and the two teens as "terrible, and I regret them deeply," adding, "I'm absolutely not attracted, physically or sexually attracted, to children. I'm just not."
