'I wanted it to stop': Cosby victim claims

Andrea Constand has testified Bill Cosby gave her pills which made her freeze before he sexually assaulted her.

The woman who says Bill Cosby sexually assaulted her has testified she felt "frozen" after taking three pills the entertainer gave her before the assault.

Andrea Constand's voice quivered on Tuesday as she began describing the 2004 incident at Cosby's Philadelphia-area home while Cosby, 79, at times shook his head.

"In my head, I was trying to get my hands to move, my legs to move, but I was frozen," she said after describing how Cosby had spent months gaining her trust. "I wanted it to stop."

Dozens of women have accused Cosby of sexual assaulting them, often after plying them with drugs, in a series of attacks dating to the 1960s.

Every accusation but Constand's is too old to be the subject of criminal prosecution and the outcome of trial in Norristown, Pennsylvania, hinges on whether jurors are persuaded by her testimony.

Cosby, best known for playing a revered father figure in the 1980s television hit comedy series The Cosby Show, denies all the allegations against him.

Constand said she first met Cosby in late 2002, when she was the newly hired director of basketball operations for Temple University's women's basketball program and he was the school's most famous alumnus.

After a series of phone calls, Constand said Cosby began inviting her dinner at his house and other events, such as a jazz concert in New York.

She said she had rebuffed his sexual advances before the 2004 assault.

In January 2004, Constand said, Cosby invited her to his house again to discuss her career options. That night he offered her three blue pills, saying they were her "friends" and would let her "relax".

When she asked if they were herbal, he nodded, she said.

"I said, 'I trust you,' and I swallowed the pills," she told jurors.

She said that after he assaulted her, she felt humiliated.

She returned the next evening and asked what the pills had been but did not get an answer.

"I realised at that point he was never going to tell me what he gave me," she said.

Constand said she continued to have contact with Cosby because she felt she had to discuss Temple as part of her job.


Share
3 min read

Published

Source: AAP


Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world