Barbara Bowman alleges that The Cosby Show actor sexually abused her when she was a teenager. She claims he used his position of power as a way of coercing and manipulating her as she set out to become an actress.
A spokesperson for Cosby could not be reached. Cosby has strongly denied previous accusations against him, which his attorney described as “preposterous” and “bizarre”.
“I was drugged and raped by that man,” she tells MailOnline. “He is a monster. He came at me like a monster. My hope is that others who have experienced sexual abuse will not be intimidated into silence by the famous, rich and powerful. If I can help one victim, then I’ve done my job.”
Bowman said that she met Cosby when she was 17 through a meeting set up by her agent. The actress claims that he served as her mentor, flying her round the US to help further her career, and encouraged her to think of him as a father figure.
“He told me over and over again, ‘Trust me like I was your father.’ He zeroed in on that like a laser beam,” she claims.
“He knew I had no father figure in my life. He knew that. yes, I was an independent girl, but he knew I was vulnerable and alone inside. He coerced and manipulated me into trusting him. He insisted I give into him 100 percent.” Bowman, now a 47-year-old artist, claims that Cosby sexually assaulted her in two separate hotel rooms and also in his New York home, where she alleges he drugged and raped her.
“I know for sure he forced himself multiple times upon me and since he needed to create an environment in which I could not fight him, I can’t in all honesty say that I recall penetration because at that time I was in a vacant state of mind, as I was often drugged and brainwashed,” she said. Whatever drug he gave me, didn’t allow me to think clearly when it was over and done with. It didn’t register that I should be panicking. It was like amnesia almost. It was like what a lobotomy would do to you. I couldn’t even think clearly when I was awake. I was vacant.”
She continued to allege that he finally threw her out of her home that he subsidised and she moved back home with her family in Denver. Bowman was one of 13 victims called to take to the witness stand in 2006 when Andrea Constand claimed that Cosby had drugged and assaulted her in his Philadelphia mansion in 2004 – allegations firmly denied by his lawyers.
In 2006, Cosby settled the case with Constand. The terms of the settlement remain undisclosed.
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