Bill O'Neill
Bill O'Neill Ohio Supreme Court

A candidate to be the next governor of the US state of Ohio has caused a stir with a Facebook post in which he details parts of his sexual past. Bill O'Neill, currently a state Supreme Court justice, said in the post that it was "time to speak up on behalf of all heterosexual males" after revelations of inappropriate actions by Senator Al Franken.

Franken has since apologised after a news anchor said that he groped her and forcibly kissed her while the two were on a USO tour in 2006.

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O'Neill's post was later changed to take some identifying information from it. In the edited version he says: "As a candidate for Governor let me save my opponents some research time. In the last fifty years I was sexually intimate with approximately 50 very attractive females."

It ranged from a gorgeous blonde who was my first true love and we made passionate love in the hayloft of her parents barn and ended with a drop dead gorgeous red head from Cleveland," O'Neill wrote.

"Now can we get back to discussing legalizing marijuana and opening the state hospital network to combat the opioid crisis. I am sooooo disappointed by this national feeding frenzy about sexual indiscretions decades ago."

Speaking to the Associated Press, O'Neill said that as a candidate for governor he assumed he was "the next target of the media frenzy." The Facebook post courted a slew of negative reactions.

"Do you realize that you are objectifying the women you loved by their beauty and sex?" one user commented. "How does this post help anyone dealing with sexual harassment or sexual assault? This is not leadership this is offensive to every woman reading it."

The Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice, Maureen O'Connor issued a statement against O'Neill's actions, saying: "I condemn in no uncertain terms Justice O'Neill's Facebook post. No words can convey my shock. This gross disrespect for women shakes the public's confidence in the integrity of the judiciary."