In Cosby trial #MeToo trumps victim-shaming

29 April 2018 - 00:00 By Agency Staff

He played the perfect father as the lovable Dr Cliff Huxtable, charming millions of TV viewers with his signature sweater and eye-roll facial wiggle during The Cosby Show.
He will now be remembered as the celebrity sexual predator of the century.
That's after a US court this week found Cosby guilty on three counts of the aggravated indecent assault of former basketball player Andrea Constand, 30 years his junior, at his Philadelphia home in 2004.
Constand, a former employee with Temple University women's basketball team, claimed that Cosby, a university alumni and trustee, drugged her and sexually assaulted her when she visited his home.
As evidence mounted against him, public opinion wavered as many defended the TV persona, including his former on-screen wife Clair Huxtable, played by Phylicia Rashad.
However, growing anti-Cosby sentiment resulted in a bronze statue of the actor being removed from Disney Hollywood Studios and reruns of The Cosby Show being pulled.Faced with this as well as an onslaught of damning evidence against him, Cosby's defence team went on the offensive, using character assassination and victim-shaming to deflect the sexual abuse allegations by Constand as well as five women who testified against him.
Constand was branded a "con artist" and "pathological liar" who wanted a piece of Cosby's fortune, while another woman was grilled about a previous drug history.
Former supermodel Janice Dickinson, who testified in the retrial, was made to look like a promiscuous "failed starlet" who "slept with every man on the planet" by Kathleen Bliss, a member of Cosby's team of defence lawyers.
The strategy seemed to work because in 2017, the jury was undecided on a guilty verdict and a mistrial was declared. But the tactic wasn't as successful during the second trial, supported by the impact of the #MeToo campaign.
The campaign has given a voice and platform to sexual abuse victims, exposing the misconduct of numerous powerful businessmen, celebrities and sports stars.
For Constand, and the more than 50 other women who claimed Cosby had abused them, the defence's victim-shaming backfired when the jury - seven men and five women - voted unanimously against Cosby on Thursday.
His chief accuser did not react. Cosby stared straight ahead while some of his other accusers cried.
Judge Steven O'Neil told the jury that it was "an extraordinarily difficult case" and that they had "sacrificed in the service of justice".But Cosby, a married father of five, was furious, standing up after the jurors had left, swearing at prosecutor Kevin Steele, who was arguing to revoke his $1-million (R12.3-million) bail.
O'Neil did not immediately send Cosby to jail, taking into account his record of appearing at every court hearing over the past two years. However, he asked Cosby to surrender his passport and not to leave his Pennsylvania home.
O'Neil ordered that arrangements should be made for Cosby to wear a GPS tracking device until a sentence hearing, expected in about 60 days.
While each count carries a maximum of 10 years in prison, Cosby's lawyer Thomas Mesereau said he planned to appeal.
When Cosby left the court, the actor acknowledged a following of fans with a slight wave of the hand, but gone was the humour as the seriousness of his future loomed large.
TIMELINE
• 1937: William Henry Cosby jnr is born in a housing project in Philadelphia.
• 1957: He joins the US Navy, then gets a job as a part-time bartender while studying.
• 1963: His debut as a comedian on The Tonight Show leads to a recording contract.
• 1965: Cosby becomes the first black actor to star in a drama series, named I Spy.
•  1984: NBC launches The Cosby Show, which airs for eight seasons and is his biggest success.
• 2002: Cosby meets Andrea Constand at a basketball game.
• 2004: Constand reveals Cosby assaulted her after giving her wine and pills.
• 2005: She sues Cosby, and about a dozen women agree to present similar testimony.
• 2015:Cosby is arrested, but his first trial ends with a hung jury.
• 2018: In a new trial, Cosby is found guilty on three counts of assaulting Constand — each punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
- Agencies..

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