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Friday 31 October 2014

'Bill Cosby threw me down on his bed and pinned me by my neck. I'll never forget the sound of the clinking of his belt buckle': Actress bravely reveals harrowing years of rape at hands of TV legend

Animal: 'I was drugged and raped by that man,' Barbara told 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'Daddy dearest: Cosby called the shots with Barbara. He convinced her that he was a father figure
When comedian Hannibal Buress delivered his recent merciless tongue-lashing at Bill Cosby, calling him a serial 'rapist', there was one woman who was paying particularly close attention.
When Barbara Bowman was a teenager she was emotionally and sexually abused by the TV star and in an exclusive interview with MailOnline she describes in chilling detail how Cosby manipulated her into believing he was a father figure and took advantage of her youth, vulnerability and yes, even ambition, to have his way with her over and over again.
'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.' 



Raised in Denver from age nine by her mother, Barbara soon began studying acting and modeling. By 13, she became a client of J.F. Images, Denver's top agency at the time.
What began as a dream in 1985 with a private 'audition' for Cosby ended two years later in screams for help while being pinned down to the comic's hotel bed.
Barbara, now 47, says it's time to end her code of silence — a silence that at least 13 other victims have followed — spanning three decades.

'I'm finally revealing all of my full story in hopes that others will learn to read the tell-tale signs of abuse and not wait as long as I did. No one believed me for years. They said Bill would never do that. That it was preposterous. But I'm putting my name out there and standing behind these words, just like Burress. No more code of silence.'
Now, 25 years after the multiple incidents of drugging, sexual assault, and even rape at the hands of the now 77-year-old Cosby, Barbara said: 'I've been silent too long. It's time to raise a fuss. I'm a real person that this happened to. And it's taken decades to get over what he did to me.
'I thank Hannibal Burress for speaking out over and over again, despite the threats from the Industry that it could ruin his career. He is standing up for me and the other women who are too afraid to speak out.

'I'm finally revealing all of my full story in hopes that others will learn to read the tell-tale signs of abuse and not wait as long as I did. No one believed me for years. They said Bill would never do that. That it was preposterous. But I'm putting my name out there and standing behind these words, just like Burress. No more code of silence.'
Now, 25 years after the multiple incidents of drugging, sexual assault, and even rape at the hands of the now 77-year-old Cosby, Barbara said: 'I've been silent too long. It's time to raise a fuss. I'm a real person that this happened to. And it's taken decades to get over what he did to me.
'I thank Hannibal Burress for speaking out over and over again, despite the threats from the Industry that it could ruin his career. He is standing up for me and the other women who are too afraid to speak out.
Credit: Dan McQuade/Philadelphia Magazine 
Camera shy: This is only image Barbara has of Cosby. She explains  that she was not allowed  to take pictures of or with Cosby in the time she knew him
Camera shy: This is only image Barbara has of Cosby. She explains  that she was not allowed  to take pictures of or with Cosby in the time she knew him
Pioneer: The Cosby Show was hailed as a ground-breaking show for its depiction of a normal middle class African American family, the Huxtables Starring along with Cosby, left to right, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Keshia Knight Pulliam, Tempestt Bledsoe, Phylicia Rashad as wife Clair and Lisa Bonet
Pioneer: The Cosby Show was hailed as a ground-breaking show for its depiction of a normal middle class African American family, the Huxtables Starring along with Cosby, left to right, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Keshia Knight Pulliam, Tempestt Bledsoe, Phylicia Rashad as wife Clair and Lisa Bonet

'And the timing couldn't be better. It sickens me to think he'll be on TV again, playing a father, no less.'
Barbara's fear is that her perpetrator will actually hit the NBC airwaves again, as soon as next summer in a new sitcom, playing a patriarchal father figure, just like he played the quintessential family man Dr Cliff Huxtable on The Bill Cosby Show in the 1980s.
'Maybe he should also teach his fictitious TV family how to escape the talons of sexual predators. Bill used to tell me that he was my father figure and that I needed to trust him as a father, 100 percent. Then he'd drug me and attack me. I was to afraid to talk back.
He told me over and over again, "Trust me like I was your father" 
- Barbara Bowman 
'He told me over and over again, "Trust me like I was your father." He zeroed in on that like a laser beam.'
While other victims were allegedly given hush money to prevent them from going public with their accusations, and another settled after filing a court case against Cosby, Barbara is free to speak out.
'I never took shut up money. My motivation to speak now is to expose Bill Cosby as the animal that he is. He went after me in that hotel room like an animal with such sexual prowess and force that he couldn't control himself. And at 19-years-old, I knew it would be the last time he would ever get the chance to hurt me this way again.'
It all began in 1985. The fresh-faced 17-year-old was invited to meet The Coz, as he was known in comedy circles, behind the closed doors of an empty conference room in the back of the Turn of the Century Nightclub in Denver, Colorado.


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