Bill Cosby jailed for up to 10 years for assault
Bill Cosby was last night jailed for between three and 10 years, and branded a “sexually violent predator” for assaulting a woman at his mansion in Philadelphia 14 years ago. Cosby, 81 – Dr Cliff Huxtable in the Eighties sitcom The Cosby Show – became the first celebrity jailed for a sex crime since the #Metoo movement began.
BILL COSBY was jailed for between three and 10 years and branded a “sexually violent predator” for assaulting a woman at his mansion in Philadelphia 14 years ago.
Cosby, 81, once beloved as “America’s dad” for his role as Dr Cliff Huxtable in the Eighties sitcom The Cosby
Show, became the first Hollywood celebrity convicted and sentenced for a sex crime since the dawn of #Metoo.
The comic’s lawyers planned to appeal his conviction but Judge Steven O’neill said he was not entitled to bail while they do.
Cosby was later led out of Montgomery County Courthouse, in Norristown, Pennsylvania, in handcuffs by police.
The judge sentenced Cosby to “three to 10 years”, meaning he will serve three years before he can apply for parole. He told him: “This was a serious crime. It is time for justice, Mr Cosby. This has all circled back to you, the time has come. No one is above the law, and no one should be treated differently or disproportionately.”
Cosby was convicted five months ago of drugging and molesting Andrea Constand, a former university basketball coach. In a written statement read to the court before sentencing, she said the attack had turned her into a woman who was “stuck in a holding pattern for most of her adult life, unable to heal fully or to move forward”.
Ms Constand said: “Life as I knew it ended” the night that Cosby drugged her with pills and assaulted her.
She added: “After the assault, I wasn’t sure what had actually happened but the pain spoke volumes.”
More than 60 women had come forward to accuse Cosby of a slew of attacks dating back to the Sixties.
Many were unable to pursue their own cases due to the amount of time that had passed, but were in court to support Ms Constand. A first trial in her case ended in a mistrial but at the second trial in April, Cosby was convicted of three counts of aggravated sexual assault, which he had denied.
Lawyers argued Cosby should be sentenced to home arrest as he is legally blind. A defence psychologist told the court the chances of him committing another sex offence were “extraordinarily low”.
But Kirsten Dudley, a state psychologist, said Cosby should be officially classified as a “sexually violent predator”. The judge agreed, which means Cosby will undergo monthly counselling, and have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
Outside court, a publicist for Cosby said: “Mr Cosby knows that God is watching over him. They prosecuted Jesus and looked what happened.”
A spokesman for Camille Cosby, the entertainer’s wife of 54 years, said she stood by her husband, calling him the victim of an “egregious injustice”.
She claimed the prosecution had “falsified evidence” and “doctored” a recording.
‘This was a serious crime. It is time for justice, Mr Cosby. No one is above the law’