‘I feel like my faith in humanity is restored’
The women who accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault shrieked, cried and hugged each other as he was found guilty by a jury Friday.
Lili Bernard, a Cuban-American actress who guest starred in The Cosby Show and accused Cosby of rape in the early 1990s, broke down in tears on the steps of the courthouse.
She called Andrea Constand, the Toronto native at the centre of Cosby’s sexual assault trial, “the Joan of Arc in the war on rape”.
“I feel like I am dreaming,” said Bernard. “I feel like my faith in humanity is restored. This is a victory not just for Andrea Constand. It’s a victory for all sexual assault survivors, women and men. I thank the jury so much.”
Gloria Allred, the crusading feminist lawyer who has represented some of Cosby’s accusers, said she was “the happiest I have been after 42 years” of fighting for women. “Finally we can say that women are believed,” she said. “Not just online, with the hashtag Me Too, but in a courtroom.”
She read out a statement from Janice Dickinson, the American model, who testified in support of Constand, who said: “I am overwhelmed with joy, relief and gratitude. Joy that finally justice has been served. Relief that this toxic chain of silence has been broken. And we can finally move forward with our heads held high.”
Kathleen Bliss, Cosby’s lawyer, had called Dickinson in her closing arguments “a failed starlet”. She added: “It sounds as though she slept with every single man on the planet. Is Miss Dickinson really the moral beacon that the women’s movement wants?”
Constand’s is the only criminal case to arise from claims made by more than 60 women. All other accusations fall out of the statute of limitations.