A very popular US television icon Bill Cosby was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison on Tuesday and described as a “sexually violent predator” for assaulting a woman at his Philadelphia mansion 14 years ago.
The 81-year-old, is reportedly said to be the first celebrity convicted and sentenced for a sex crime since the downfall of Harvey Weinstein ushered in the #MeToo movement and America’s reckoning with sexual harassment.
Convicted five months ago of drugging and molesting Andrea Constand, a former university basketball administrator, he was reported to have shown no reaction when Judge Steven O’Neill handed down the sentence in a court in Norristown, Pennsylvania.
Looking at Constand, seated in the gallery, O’Neill referenced the words “no, no, no” that she heard in her head as the assault took place in January 2004, and she was powerless to fight him off after being sedated. “You didn’t hear those words,” said O’Neill. “I heard those words. The jury heard those words.”
Defence lawyers had argued that Cosby should be confined to house arrest, as he has been since his conviction, arguing that he is too old and too frail — the actor says he is legally blind — to endure a correctional facility.
But the judge said; “You were convicted of a very serious crime. No one is above the law,” he added. “No one should be treated differently.”
“Bill Cosby took my beautiful, healthy young spirit and crushed it. He robbed me of my health and vitality, my open nature, and my trust in myself and others,” the victim wrote in a five-page victim impact statement.
“When the sexual assault happened, 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 who’s been stuck in a holding pattern for most of her adult life, unable to heal fully or to move forward.”
