Entertainer Bill Cosby, once known as “America’s Dad,” was on Tuesday sentenced to three to 10 years in a state prison for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand at his home 14 years ago.
Cosby’s bail was revoked and he was escorted from the courthouse in handcuffs.
Handing down his judgement, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Judge Steven O’Neill said; “This was a serious crime.Mr. Cosby, this has all circled back to you. The day has come, the time has come.”
O’Neill further ruled that Cosby will be classified as a “sexually violent predator” which means that he would be listed on the sex offenders register, undergo counselling for life and always notify his neighbourhood that a “sexually violent predator” lives in the area.
He also was ordered to pay a fine of $25,000 plus the costs of prosecution as part of the sentence.
Once a groundbreaking actor, Cosby was accused by dozens of women of drugging and sexually assaulting them over his decades as a powerful media figure. However, most of those cases occurred outside the statute of limitations.
Cosby was convicted in April of three counts of aggravated indecent assault for drugging and assaulting Constand at his home in 2004, in the first high-profile celebrity criminal trial of the #MeToo era.
“No one is above the law, and no one should be treated differently or disproportionally,” O’Neill said.
Cosby, 81, declined to speak to the court prior to the sentence.
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However, his spokesperson Andrew Wyatt condemned the entire process describing the prosecution as “the most racist and sexist trial in the history of the United States.” He also said Cosby was doing well because “he knows that these are lies.”
Gloria Allred, the victims’ rights attorney who represents several women who say they were assaulted by Bill Cosby, praised the sentence.
“We’re glad that judgment day has finally come for Mr. Cosby.”
In June2017, Ms. Constand, former Temple University administrator described how Cosby had given her pills that left her “frozen” and unable to stop his assault.
Bill Cosby became a household name in the 80s when he starred in television sitcom, the Cosby Show, as father in a well-to-do African-American family living in Brooklyn.