Payment comes due for Cosby

Victims of sexual assault often suffer in silence with no emotional reprieve from their nightmare. Unfortunately for many, the perpetrator never faces the consequences of his actions. Bill Cosby’s luck ran out Tuesday as he was sentenced to three to 10 years behind bars for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman at his estate in 2004. Andrea Constand, a Temple University basketball administrator, was at Cosby’s Philadelphia mansion, where he drugged her and sexually assaulted her as she lay immobilized on a couch.

Cosby has been similarly accused by more than 60 women over the last few years.

Now he’s in jail and it’s a positive development for sexual assault victims everywhere, as well as a shot across the bow for powerful men with similar proclivities. Cosby wielded his power and influence to protect himself from his victims for far too long.

“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, according to The Associated Press. “For decades, the defendant has been able to hide his true self and hide his crimes using his fame and fortune. He’s hidden behind a character he created, Dr. Cliff Huxtable,” Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele said to reporters. But “now, finally, Bill Cosby has been unmasked, and we have seen the real man as he is headed off to prison.”

What Cosby did to this victim, and allegedly the others, was horrific. In a statement submitted to the court, the 45-yearold Constand draws a heartbreaking picture of her life after sexual abuse: “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 . ... Bill Cosby took my beautiful, healthy young spirit and crushed it.”

We hope that Andrea Constand and the other victims can find some peace now that their attacker is behind bars.