Bill Cosby arrives for sentencing hearing facing ‘rest of life’ in prison

Bill Cosby has arrived for a sentencing hearing that will determine how the comedian will be punished for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman more than 14 years ago.

Cosby was the first celebrity to go on trial in the Metoo era and could be the first to go to prison – perhaps for the rest of his life – after being convicted in April of violating Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004.

The 81-year-old walked into the courthouse in suburban 0 Bill Cosby will be punished for sexual assault

Philadelphia on the arm of his longtime spokesman as protesters shouted at him.

At the end of the potentially two-day hearing, Montgomery County Judge Steven T O’neill could sentence Cosby to as many as 30 years in prison or send him home on probation. The state guidelines for someone like Cosby, with no prior convictions, call for about one to four years behind bars. Cosby is legally blind and uses a cane, something his lawyers are certain to point out along with his achievements and philanthropy.

Prosecutors hoped to call some of his other accusers to paint Cosby as a sexual predator deserving of prison. Whatever the sentence, Cosby is likely to be deemed a sexually violent predator and will have to undergo monthly counselling for the rest of his life, in prison or out.