Barbara Bowman, a former actress claims that she was assaulted several times by Bill Cosby. Read more on the story below to find out more about what happened to her!
Barbara Bowman recently wrote an essay in the Washington Post about being assaulted by Bill Cosby and why it took her so long to come out with her story. To calm the assault allegations Cosby recently asked his social media followers to “meme” him. People began creating memes about the sexual assault claims against him. Bowman says, “(He) brainwashed me into viewing him as a father figure, and then assaulted me multiple times.”
She goes on to say that one of the alleged incidents took place at his home in New York when she was 17. “When I came to, I was in my panties and a man’s T-shirt, and Cosby was looming over me.…I’m certain now that he drugged and raped me…the women victimized by Bill Cosby have been talking about his crimes for more than a decade. Why didn’t our stories go viral?” she says. Because of Cosby’s role as an “American father” on “The Cosby Show” it was hard for her to speak out against him she says. When another one of Cosby’s alleged victims named Andrea Constandt, filed a suit against him in 2004, Bowman was determined to testify against him but the case was settled out of court.
She is speaking out again in order to urge legislation to revise the statute of limitations for crimes related to sexual assault. She states, “Famous and wealthy perpetrators use their power to shame and silence their victims..It often takes years for young women to overcome those feelings and gain the confidence to come forward (by which point physical evidence is long gone). Our legal system shouldn’t silence them a second time.”
