Bill Cosby latest: Judge rules jurors can hear the comedian's testimony about giving drugs to women before sex

Trial: Bill Cosby pictured leaving court during the sexual assault re-trial
AP
Chloe Chaplain17 April 2018

The judge in the Bill Cosby sexual assault trial has ruled that jurors can hear the comedian’s previous testimony about giving women drugs before having sex with them.

The decision will mean that the jury will hear a testimony from ten years ago in which the US star explained giving medication known as quaaludes to women before being having sexual activity.

The ruling, issued on Tuesday, marked a key victory for the prosecution who are keen to portray the ‘Cosby Show’ star as a serial predator.

Judge Steven O'Neill ruled that prosecutors can have the 80-year-old’s star's deposition testimony from 2005 read into the record.

Cosby is accused of drugging and molesting former Temple University basketball administrator Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia mansion in 2004.

Accustions: Andrea Constand, left, is a key witness
REUTERS

Testifying under oath in 2005 as part of Constand's civil suit against him, Cosby said he had obtained several prescriptions for quaaludes from his doctor in Los Angeles in the 1970s, ostensibly for a sore back.

The long-married comedian said he never took the drug, instead giving it to women he wanted to have sex with "the same as a person would say, `Have a drink."'

"Quaaludes happen to be the drug that kids, young people were using to party with, and there were times when I wanted to have them just in case," Cosby testified.

The former TV star ultimately settled Constand's lawsuit for nearly $3.4 million.

Cosby's lawyers argued the testimony is irrelevant to his retrial because there is no evidence he gave Constand the drug.

In the deposition, Cosby said he gave Constand three half-tablets of the cold and allergy medicine Benadryl. Prosecutors have suggested he gave her something stronger - perhaps quaaludes, a popular party drug in the 1970s that was banned in the US in 1982.

Accused: Bill Cosby 
Reuters

The unsealing of the deposition, at the request of The Associated Press, led prosecutors to reopen Cosby's criminal case in 2015.

Cosby says his sexual encounter with Ms Constand was consensual.

Prosecutors are building to the conclusion of their case against Cosby with investigators and a pharmaceutical expert expected to take the stand beginning Tuesday.

On Monday, Ms Constand rejected claims she concocted her story to make money and her mother testified that Cosby apologized in a phone call and called himself a "sick man."

Andrea and Gianna Constand's testimony followed that of five additional accusers who told jurors that Cosby had drugged and assaulted them two decades earlier.

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