The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Bill Cosby ‘feeling great’ after conviction
US TV star Bill Cosby maintains he is innocent, despite his conviction on Thursday for drugging and molesting a woman in 2004.
A spokesman said the 80-year-old was “feeling great” one day after the verdict and had been spending time with his wife of 54 years, Camille.
Andrew Wyatt told Good Morning America that Cosby is confident that he did nothing wrong and maintains his innocence.
The entertainer was known as “America’s Dad” after breaking down racial barriers in Hollywood on his way to TV superstardom as the wisdom-dispensing Dr Cliff Huxtable in the Cosby Show in the 1980s.
But his downfall came after Temple University employee Andrea Constand said she was knocked out with three blue pills Cosby called “your friends” before sexually assaulting her while she lay immobilised.
He claimed the encounter was consensual, saying he gave her the cold and allergy medicine Benadryl to relax, but a jury convicted him of three counts of aggravated indecent assault.
Women’s advocates called the verdict a turning point in the #MeToo movement that proved what Cosby’s accusers had been saying all along: his nice-guy image was a sham.
Cosby waved to the crowd outside the courthouse, got into an SUV and left without saying anything. His lawyer Tom Mesereau declared “the fight is not over” and said he will appeal.
Ms Constand said in a Twitter post yesterday that “truth prevails”.
She posted a “very profound and heartfelt thank you” to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for its service and sacrifices. She followed by saying congratulations. It was the only criminal case to arise from a barrage of allegations from more than 60 women who said Cosby drugged and molested them.