Cosby jailed for up to 10 years

COURT: Judge tells entertainer ‘It’s time for justice, Mr Cosby’ as downfall is completed

Bill Cosby has been sentenced to three to 10 years in prison for drugging and molesting a woman at his home.

Judge Steven O’Neill sentenced Cosby yesterday, five months after his conviction in the first celebrity trial of the #MeToo era.

Prosecutors were seeking a sentence of five to 10 years in prison. The defence asked for house arrest.

The 81-year-old comedian did not make a statement in court.

Cosby sat back in his chair, his head on the headrest, as the sentence was read.

The entertainer once known as America’s Dad was convicted in April of sexually assaulting Temple University athletics administrator Andrea Constand in 2004.

Constand is one of about 60 women who have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct.

The punishment all but completed the dizzying, late-in-life fall for the comedian, former TV star and breaker of racial barriers.

“It is time for justice. Mr Cosby, this has all circled back to you. The time has come,” Montgomery County Judge Steven O’Neill said.

He quoted from victim Andrea Constand’s own statement to the court, in which she said Cosby took her “beautiful, young spirit and crushed it”.

The punishment came at the end of a two-day hearing at which the judge declared Cosby a “sexually violent predator”, a modern-day scarlet letter that subjects him to monthly counselling for the rest of his life and requires neighbours and schools be notified of his whereabouts.

His lawyers had asked for house arrest, saying Cosby, who is legally blind, is too old and vulnerable to do time in prison.

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,” Steele said.

Picture: AP. A handcuffed Bill Cosby is escorted from the court after being sentenced.