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Known also as America’s Dad, Bill Cosby is on trial in the US for sexual assault, with more than 50 women accusing him. Monday saw the first day of the trial in Norristown, Pennsylvania, US, and Kelly Johnson, the first witness, said she held off for years going public about how Bill allegedly drugged and sexually abused her, in fear she would not be taken seriously against one of the biggest and most loved celebrities in the world.
Cosby is not being charged with her assault, but the witnesses statements are being used to represent the pattern in his alleged past actions of drugging and assaulting women. Andrea Constand is one of the women who was assaulted, and her case is the basis of the currently ongoing trial. Constand said the celebrity star sexually assaulted her in his suburban a home in Philadelphia, US, back in 2004.
Yesterday saw testimony from Johnson’s mother, details of which are still to be released at time of publication. Johnson already testified in 1996 that Bill gave her a pill to ‘relax’ when she visited him in LA for career help. She said when she awoke she was part undressed, and that the globally renown comedian made her touch his genitals.
According to Reuters, she said: “I was humiliated and embarrassed…I was very afraid because I had a secret about the biggest celebrity in the world at that time. It was just me and my word against his.”
By now over 50 women have accused Bill Cosby of similar action, dating back to the 1960s. Constand’s case, the one now in trial, is the only case that doesn’t date too far back to prosecute. Other testimonies will serve to answer the question as to whether he will be accused and convicted of previous mentions too.
Pennsylvania prosecutors gathered the charges against Cosby in 2015, just before the statute of limitations hit its mark for prosecution. Cosby denies all allegations and says relations with Constand were consensual. Cosby however, is not expected to testify in this trial, but his testimony words form 2005 will be brought into the currently ongoing trial.
Reuters says Defense attorney Brian McMonagle has welcomed that evidence. “Mr. Cosby has never, ever under oath run from what happened that night,” McMonagle said on Monday. “At no point in time did he ever say anything to anybody that this young woman was incapacitated in any way.”
