Led away to jail for up to 10 years, Cosby the ‘violent sex predator’
Downfall of ‘America’s Dad’ as Bill Cosby jailed for up to 10 years and branded a sexually violent predator
BILL Cosby was last night sentenced to up to ten years in prison for drugging and sexually assaulting a young woman.
The 81-year-old comedian, who was once one of the biggest stars of television, will be jailed for at least three years. It completes a stunning fall from grace for a man who was known as ‘America’s Dad’.
‘It is time for justice. Mr Cosby, this has all circled back to you,’ said Judge Steven O’Neill. ‘The time has come.’
The judge branded him a sexually violent predator which means he must undergo monthly counselling for the rest of his life and report quarterly to authorities. His name will appear on a sexoffender register sent to neighbours, schools and victims.
Cosby declined to make a statement to court when given the opportunity.
At a retrial in April, Cosby was found guilty of three counts of sexual assault for drugging and molesting Andrea Constand, then 30, at his suburban Philadelphia mansion in 2004.
After delivering the sentence of three to ten years, Judge O’Neill said: ‘Mr Cosby, you took her beautiful healthy young spirit and crushed it.’
He told Miss Constand he understood ‘the very clear impact’ the assault had on
her life. The judge also denied Cosby’s request for bail pending appeal. He was later led away in handcuffs and taken to the Montgomery jail in Maryland.
At the two-day hearing in Philadelphia, his lawyers had asked for house arrest, saying he was legally blind and too old and vulnerable to serve time in prison.
But Montgomery County district attorney Kevin Steele rejected the notion that Cosby’s age and infirmity entitle him to mercy. ‘He was good at hiding this for a long time. Good at suppressing this for a long time. So it’s taken a long time to get there,’ Mr Steele said.
In the first celebrity trial of the ‘ Me Too’ sex abuse era, Cosby arrived alone at court without his wife of 54 years, Camille. The entertainer, known for his hit 1980s TV series The Cosby Show, has been accused of sexual misconduct by more than 60 women.
In a statement submitted to the court and released yesterday, Miss Constand said she had had to cope with years of anxiety and self-doubt that had left her ‘stuck in a holding pattern’. The 45-yearold said her training as a professional basketball player had led her to think she could handle anything, but ‘life as I knew it’ ended on the night Cosby knocked her out with pills and violated her. Miss Constand said she now lived alone with her two dogs and had trouble trusting people. ‘Bill Cosby took my beautiful, healthy young spirit and crushed it,’ she said. ‘He robbed me of my health and vitality, my open nature, and my trust in myself and others.
‘When the sexual assault happened, I was a young woman brimming with confidence and looking forward to a future bright with possibilities. Now, almost 15 years later, I’m a middle-aged woman who’s been stuck in a holding pattern for most of her adult life, unable to heal fully or to move forward.’
In April Cosby was found guilty of three counts of sexually assaulting Miss Constand in 2004. During the retrial, it was revealed the star had paid Miss Constand £2.4million in a civil settlement in 2006.
Miss Constand met Cosby through her work at Temple University, Philadelphia. She went to police a year after the attack, but Cosby was not prosecuted. He claimed the sexual activity was consensual and denied any wrongdoing.
Only one allegation has been brought to trial, with the statute of limitations expiring in many of the claims against Cosby, meaning he could not be charged over them. His lawyer, Joseph Green Jr, urged the judge to ignore the protests and activism surrounding the case and send Cosby home on house arrest.
Model Janice Dickinson also gave evidence against Cosby, saying she was drugged and raped by him in 1982.
Cosby’s wife Camille last night claimed prosecutor Mr Steele used ‘falsified evidence’ to win the conviction. She said he presented doctored audio of a recorded phone conversation between Cosby and the accuser’s mother and said the defence team planned to raise the issue on appeal.
Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt, meanwhile, said the star was ‘doing great’ after his sentence.
‘Knocked her out with pills’