One Of Bill Cosby's Alleged Rape Victim Comes Forward With Her Story

One of Bill Cosby’s alleged victims is turning up the heat on the funnyman in a scathing op-ed.

Barbara Bowman published an essay in the Washington Post on Thursday in which she asks why it has taken so long for the public to show awareness of reports that the TV star perpetrated multiple instances of sexual assault.

While the accusations against Cosby date back to the 1970s, the celeb has come under fire in recent weeks due to stand-up comedian Hannibal Buress’ routine about the actor.

The scrutiny intensified when Cosby asked his social media followers to “meme me,” which backfired when people created memes about the sexual assault claims.

Bowman, who is now in her mid-40s, alleges that Cosby assaulted her at age 17 when she was an aspiring actress.

“(He) brainwashed me into viewing him as a father figure, and then assaulted me multiple times,” she wrote.

One of the alleged incidents took place at his home in New York, in which she “blacked out after having dinner and one glass of wine.”

“When I came to, I was in my panties and a man’s T-shirt, and Cosby was looming over me,” Bowman wrote. “I’m certain now that he drugged and raped me."

She claims the final incident occurred at a hotel in Atlantic City, in which Bowman alleges that Cosby held her down as she screamed for help.

“I furiously tried to wrestle from his grasp until he eventually gave up, angrily called me ‘a baby’ and sent me home to Denver,” she revealed.

Bowman said that she had initially tried to convince herself that she had “imagined” Cosby’s actions, even telling herself, “Bill Cosby was going to make me a star and this was part of the deal.”

But after her final interaction with Cosby, she began confiding in various people, but their “dismissive responses crushed any hope I had of getting help,” and that “feeling of futility is what ultimately kept me from going to the police.”

She noted that Cosby’s popular public persona, especially his starring role as all-American father Cliff Huxtable on “The Cosby Show” made it very difficult to speak out against him, although she didn’t keep completely silent in the intervening years.

Bowman said that when another of Cosby’s alleged victims named Andrea Constandt filed a suit against Cosby in 2004, she was determined to take the stand to testify against him, but the case was settled out of court. She also shared her story with various publications, most recently a Newsweek interview last year.

“Still, my complaint didn’t seem to take hold,” Bowman wrote. “Only after a man, Hannibal Buress, called Bill Cosby a rapist in a comedy act last month did the public outcry begin in earnest.”

Bowman said while she was grateful in the renewed interest due to Buress’ comment and the Internet meme backlash, she also has a lot of questions.

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