Bill Cosby sued by five women for sexual abuse, assault and battery under the New York Adult Survivors Act

Bill Cosby was sued by five women who have long claimed the comedian sexually assaulted them early in their career.

The lawsuit was filed more than a year after the 85-year-old was released from a Pennsylvania jail in 2021 when his 2018 sexual assault conviction was overturned, according to the Associated Press.

Earlier this year, a Los Angeles jury awarded $500,000 to a woman who said Mr Cosby sexually assaulted her at the Playboy Mansion in 1975 when she was a teenager.

The lawsuit was filed in New York on Monday under the state’s Adult Survivors Act, which gives adults a year to file sexual abuse claims.

The women – Lili Bernard, Eden Tirl, Jewel Gittens, Jennifer Thompson and Cindra Ladd – claim they were abused or assaulted by Mr Cosby after meeting him on set or in the entertainment industry between the 1960s and 1960s. 1990.

The trial also claims that NBC and television companies Kaufman Astoria Studios and Carsey-Werner Television are “guilty and responsible” for the alleged sexual assaults.

The Cosby Show, which Mr. Cosby starred on NBC from 1984 to 1992, was produced by Carsey-Werner and filmed at Kaufman Astoria Studios.

“It was well known that Bill Cosby regularly took young women into his dressing room, and when you read the complaint you will see that there were instances where the staff saw this happen and even encouraged the complainant to submit”, said attorney Jordan Rutsky, who represents the five women.

“It wasn’t a hidden secret that Bill Cosby was doing these things. It was just accepted.”

The lawsuit says that in some cases Mr Cosby drugged the women with alcohol or pills before assaulting them.

Andrew Wyatt, a spokesman for Mr Cosby, said “accusers have resurfaced to bring a frivolous civil suit” against the entertainer.

Mr Cosby spent nearly three years behind bars before his conviction was overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which ruled he incriminated himself when he gave evidence in a deposition, finding he had benefited from immunity from prosecution.

The trial judge and an appeals court had previously found no evidence of any immunity.