Cuba Gooding Jr. has denied comedienne Claudia Oshry's claims that he sexually assaulted her when she was 16 years old, insisting he has "no recollection" of her.
Oshry, a stand-up comic known for her Instagram account Girl With No Job, alleged during the 11 June episode of her podcast The Morning Toast that the Jerry Maguire star had inserted his finger into her bottom.
"At the end of the day - like, I don't know if I've ever considered myself to be, like, a victim of sexual assault because I'm not," she said at the time. "There are people who are real victims that I would never compare myself to them. But yes, when I was in high school - I was f**king 16 years old - Cuba Gooding Jr. put his finger up my butt, and I felt wild.
"Like, I felt - I don't even know what the right word is. And now, it's just become, like, a part of who I am. It's a part of my story."
Elaborating on the alleged incident during a chat with Entertainment Tonight, Oshry recalled: "I was a senior in high school in 2012. I was at a club called SL with a bunch of my friends. We were all at a table when I felt someone inappropriately touching me. I turn around and Cuba Gooding Jr. is there hysterically laughing. I was mortified.
"I was genuinely confused. Nobody had ever touched me without my consent before. I wasn't planning on turning around and seeing a celebrity, just your average NYC degenerate. The entire thing happened so fast, it was the weirdest thing ever."
Oshry alleged she didn't want to tell anybody about what had happened because she worried she'd get in trouble for being in a club underage. She did tell her friends and family though, and has worked the incident into her comedy material at points during her career.
Gooding Jr. denied Oshry's claims through his attorney Mark Heller, who told E! News in a statement: "Cuba says this incident never happened and he has no recollection of this individual either."
Oshry's allegations come just days after Gooding Jr. was accused of groping a woman during a night out in Manhattan earlier this month. He has pleaded not guilty to misdemeanour charges of forcible touching and sexual abuse in the third degree after surrendering to authorities last Thursday.
If convicted of the charges, he faces up to a year behind bars, in addition to three years of probation and a $1,000 (£800) fine.
