Bill Cosby is heading straight to prison. The disgraced comedian will be immediately remanded after being sentenced on Tuesday, September 25, to three to 10 years behind bars for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand.
Judge Steven O’Neill deemed Cosby, 81, a “sexually violent predator” during a hearing at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pennsylvania. He ruled that the Cosby Show alum must undergo lifetime counseling and appear on a sex offender registry.
“In sentencing, I will apply equal justice under the law,” the judge said. “No one is above the law because of where they live or who they are in terms of wealth, fame, celebrity of philanthropy.”
Cosby was convicted in April on three counts of aggravated indecent assault after Constand, 45, testified that he gave her three blue pills before raping her at his home near Philadelphia in January 2004.
“Mr. Cosby took her beautiful young spirit and crushed it,” Judge O’Neill said on Tuesday before declaring that the actor cannot have any contact with the former Temple University employee or her family members.
Cosby, who has long maintained his innocence, has been accused of sexual misconduct by more than 60 women since Constand first went to police in 2005.
The Emmy winner’s wife, Camille, stood by him throughout the case, but she was not in court on Tuesday.
Cosby has been denied bail.
