Several women accusing Bill Cosby of rape and sexual assault have spoken out in the wake of his Tuesday sentencing to jail for drugging and molesting a woman in 2004.
The 81-year-old comedian was convicted of sexually assaulting Andrea Constand, 45, at his home in Philadeplhia following a trial earlier this year, and was yesterday sentenced to three to ten years behind bars.
Around 60 women, many of them onetime aspiring actresses and models, have publicly branded Cosby as a calculating, serial predator who plied victims with sedatives and alcohol to bed them over four decades.
Vindication: Sunni Welles, 70, who claims Cosby drugged and raped her twice in 1965, called Cosby an unforgivable, disgusting, sexual deviant’ who had destroyed her life
Fighting back: Attorney Gloria Allred, left, comforts Chelan Lasha, who claims she was raped by Cosby when she was 17 said he should not get a lenient sentence because he is 81
Support: Lasha embraces another fellow accuser Stacey Pinkerton during the news conference in the wake of Cosby’s sentencing for sexual assault
Yesterday, several of his accusers held a lengthy and tearful press conference praising his prison term and saying they were finally able to turn the page on years of horrific memories.
‘Today I feel a victory in my heart and my soul,’ said Sarita Butterfield, a onetime Playboy Playmate who accuses Cosby of raping her in 1978 in a house in Massachusetts where he was staying with his family
Sunni Welles, 70, who claims Cosby drugged and raped her twice in 1965, fought off tears when she said the comedian had ‘in essence, destroyed so much of my life.
‘Not only who I am today at 70 years old but who I was and could have been or would have become in this world.’
Addressing Cosby directly, Welles said: ‘You will always be an unforgivable, disgusting, sexual deviant.’
Convicted: Cosby is seen in this booking photo at Montgomery County Correctional Facility, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Welles paid tribute to Constand, a Temple University women’s basketball administrator who was the only one whose claims were recent enough to be prosecuted.
Constand’s case helped prompt dozens of other accusers to come forward with similar allegations.
‘If she hadn’t been able to stand in court, we wouldn’t be standing here today,’ Welles said.
Chelan Lasha, who says Cosby assaulted her after giving her a pill in 1986, hit back at those who argued the comedian, who is legally blind, should receive a lenient sentence due to his old age,
‘He did not care how old I was. I was young and innocent and only 17 years old. Why should he receive mercy just because he is 81 years old?’
Lili Bernard, who said Cosby sexually assaulted her before giving her a one-time role on ‘The Cosby Show’ in 1992, said there is ‘solace’ in his sentence.
‘It is his fame and his fortune and his phony philanthropy that has allowed him to get away with impunity,’ she said.
‘Maybe this will send a message to other powerful perpetrators that they will be caught and punished.’
Speakign out: Lise-Lotte Lublin, who has accused actor and comedian Bill Cosby of sexual assault, is flanked by attorney Gloria Allred and victim advocate Jennifer Storm
United survivors: Sunni Welles, left, breaks down during the news conference also attended by by Stacey Pinkerton, and Chelan Lasha
Bill Cosby accuser Lili Bernard, left, and grief counselor Caroline Heldman react after the sentencing of Bill Cosby
Accuser Victoria Valentino, who attended the sentencing said: ‘this is a great day for women and a great day for rape survivors.’
Former model Janice Dickinson, was also in attendance in court, and could be seen hugging Constand after the sentencing.
Ms Dickinson told jurors in April she too had fallen victim to Cosby, saying the 81-year-old had given her a pill he claimed would ease her menstrual cramps but instead left her immobilized and unable to stop an assault she called ‘gross.’
Looking over at Cosby in the courthouse, she told him: ‘Who gets the last laugh, pal?’
Cindra Ladd, a model-turned-Hollywood executive who says Cosby gave her a pill that incapacitated her and then raped her in 1969, said: ‘I did think that I didn’t care if he went to prison or hell, but I did care.
‘It’s hard to describe. I can’t say euphoria, it wasn’t happiness, but a tremendous relief that justice was served.’
Support: Andrea Constand is hugged by model Janice Dickinson outside the courtroom
Last laugh: Dickinson gestures outside the Montgomery County Courthouse during Bill Cosby’s sentencing hearing
Victory: Andrea Constand and prosecutor Kristen Feden smile after Bill Cosby was sentenced
The 81-year-old, once beloved by millions as ‘America’s Dad,’ is the first celebrity convicted and sentenced for a sex crime since the fall of Harvey Weinstein ushered in the #MeToo movement and America’s reckoning with sexual harassment.
Cosby was impassive when Judge Steven O’Neill handed down the sentence in Norristown, Pennsylvania.
The judge rejected a defense request to release Cosby on bail pending an appeal. The now frail entertainer was slapped in handcuffs, and led out of court in his shirt and braces, his tie and jacket removed.
It makes him one of the famous Americans ever sent to prison in a country where fame, wealth and expensive lawyers have tended to help celebrities avoid the full arm of the law in the past.
‘You were convicted of a very serious crime,’ O’Neill told Cosby. ‘No one is above the law.’
His sentence means that Cosby can apply for parole after three years. His requests will be reviewed by a special committee and can be rejected up to a maximum sentence of 10 years behind bars.
O’Neill also branded Cosby a ‘sexually violent predator,’ a humiliating designation that will force him to register with police for the rest of his life and to submit to mandatory counseling.
Cosby is escorted to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility Tuesday following his sentencing to three-to-10-year prison sentence for sexual assault
Bill Cosby was sentenced to three to 10 years in state prison on Tuesday for drugging and molesting a woman in Philadelphia in 2004. He was handcuffed and escorted from the courtroom carrying his walking stick
The comic once known as America’s Dad was escorted from the courtroom in handcuffs and will be heading straight to prison
Prosecutors had demanded five to 10 years, after the three counts of aggravated indecent assault were merged into one, saving him from a theoretical maximum sentence of 30 years.
The actor was filmed being put in the back of a vehicle, to be taken first to Montgomery County Correctional Facility, before the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections and then onto a state prison.
Defense lawyers wanted Cosby 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.
‘It’s been a long time coming, but today, justice has been served,’ chief prosecutor Kevin Steele told reporters.
‘Finally, Bill Cosby has been unmasked and we have seen the real man as he is headed off to prison.’
Once a towering figure in late 20th century American popular culture and the first black actor to grace primetime US television, Cosby was a hero for decades, particularly among African Americans.
Across the television-watching world, he was revered for his signature role, affable obstetrician and father Cliff Huxtable on ‘The Cosby Show,’ which ran from 1984-92. Yet even after being convicted, he expressed no public remorse.
He declined to testify in court or produce any witnesses to emphasize past years of philanthropic work as mitigating circumstances in his favor. His wife, Camille, did not attend the sentencing hearing.
‘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,’ Constand wrote in a five-page impact statement.
‘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.’