The Canadian woman who is Bill Cosby’s chief accuser took the stand at his sexual assault trial today to tell her story publicly for the first time.
Toronto native Andrea Constand told court the comedian groped her after giving her three blue pills that left her paralyzed and helpless.
The 44-year-old was an employee of the basketball program at Temple University, Cosby’s alma mater, at the time.
She testified she felt frozen and wasn’t able to fight in any way — but she wanted it to stop.
“In my head, I was trying to get my hands to move or my legs to move, but I was frozen,” said Constand. “I wasn’t able to fight in any way.”
The 79-year-old Cosby is charged with drugging and violating Constand at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004.
The TV star once dubbed America’s Dad could get 10 years in prison if convicted.
Constand said Cosby gave her pills he claimed were a natural remedy to ease her stress about a looming career change.
She quoted him as saying — “They’ll take the edge off.”
Constand said she started feeling woozy after about 20 minutes, with blurred vision, slurred words and legs that felt like rubber.
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She said Cosby then penetrated her with his hand and also placed her hand on his penis and moved it back and forth.
Afterward, Constand said, “I felt really humiliated and I felt really confused.”
Cosby, sitting across the room at the defence table, leaned in to listen, whispered to his lawyer and, at times, shook his head
Before today, Constand had never spoken about Cosby in public, barred from doing so under the terms of a confidential settlement they reached in 2006.
Her deposition from that lawsuit remains sealed.
Some 60 women have come forward to say Cosby sexually violated them, but the statute of limitations for prosecution had run out in nearly every case.
Constand’s case is the only one in which Cosby has been charged.
*with files from the Associated Press
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