Bill Cosby found guilty of drugging and molesting woman
Bill Cosby has been convicted of drugging and molesting a woman in the first big celebrity trial of the #MeToo era.
Actor and comedian Bill Cosby has been found guilty of three counts sexual misconduct capping a stunning fall from grace for the man once dubbed “America’s Dad’’.
The 80-year-old stared straight ahead as the sentence was read out in a Pennsylvania courtroom while several of the women who have accused him of molesting them broke down in tears inside the court.
Cosby faces up to 10 years in jail for each of the three counts which at his age could be a life sentence.
After two days of deliberation the jury found Cosby guilty of all three counts of sexual misconduct after he drugged and sexually assaulted Andrea Constand at his Philadelphia home in 2004.
Although more than 60 women have claimed in recent years that they were drugged and sexually assaulted by Cosby over his long television and acting career, Constand was the only one to take legal action against him.
“I feel like I’m dreaming,” Lili Bernard, who has accused Cosby of assault, said afterwards. “I feel like my faith in humanity is restored.”
“It is not just a victory of the 62 Cosby survivors — it is also a victory for womanhood.”
Lawyer Gloria Allred, who represented 33 Cosby accusers said the verdict said “justice has been done’’.
“We are so happy that finally we can say, women are believed. And not only on #MeToo but in a court of law where they are under oath, where they testified truthfully, where they are attacked,” Ms Allred said. “After all is said and done, women were finally believed.”
Cosby, whose first trial ended in a hung jury, did not speak after the verdict but suddenly lost his temper when District Attorney Kevin Steele asked the judge to revoke his bail.
After Steele claimed that Cosby was a flight risk because he owned a private plane, Cosby yelled in a booming voice “he doesn’t have a plane you asshole’’.
During the retrial five other women were allowed to testify about their experience of being drugged and molested by Cosby to try to persuade the jury that this was an established pattern of behaviour.
Cosby’s defence team tried to portray Constand as a liar who was after a part of Cosby’s fortune.
The verdict is the first against a major celebrity since the birth of the #MeToo movement which has uncovered a string of sexual misconduct allegations against high profile men around the world, including Australia.
Cosby had a generation of loyal fans until the number of women accusing him of sexual assault turned the tide of public opinion against him.
Throughout the 1980s and early 90s, Cosby was “America’s Dad.” His role in The Cosby Show from 1984 until 1992 as the goofy, funny but moralistic patriarch of the upper middle class Huxtable family was the biggest TV hit of the decade. It spent five years as the country’s number one rated show.
Now Cosby faces the rest of his life in prison.
(Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia)
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