Bill Cosby’s sexual assault trial: Jury selection begins

The 79-year-old entertainer, who became known as “America’s Dad” throughout decades as a national treasure, is expected to attend every day of jury selection hearings at a court in Pennsylvania.

The trial, which is expected to last two weeks, will begin to hear evidence on 5 June.

Cosby faces three counts of felony aggravated indecent assault. He is alleged to have drugged and molested Andrea Constand at his mansion in 2004.

He has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges but faces a maximum of 15 to 30 years in prison if found guilty.

Cosby says the encounter was consensual. It was the subject of civil lawsuit in 2006 during which Cosby admitted extramarital affairs and using sedatives to seduce women.

Criminal charges were filed in December 2015, just days before the statute of limitations expired, and with dozens of women coming forward to make accusations against the star.

In a rare interview last week, Cosby, who has revealed that he is now blind, said he would not testify in his own defence during the trial.

He told CNN that the number of accusations against him was “an impressive way to get public opinion” against him. When asked if he meant they were lying, he said: “You know better than that.”

“There’s an old showbiz saying, ‘Look, it doesn’t make any difference as long as they spell your name right,’ well I want to raise my hand and say I want to really to debate that strongly.”

The judge in the trial has imposed strict conditions on reporting of events inside the court, threatening those live-tweeting proceedings with prison. The trial will not be televised.

It represents the first criminal proceedings against Cosby out of the dozens of accusations made against him dating back decades.

He faces a civil lawsuit in California brought by a woman who says he molested her at the Playboy Mansion when she was 15 in 1974.

Cosby became a national institution as producer and star of The Cosby Show. The sitcom about a middle-class doctor and his family dominated ratings throughout the late 1980s.

The entertainer has suggested that he might return to performing in the future.

“I still feel that I have an awful lot to offer in terms of my writing, in terms of my performance.” –news.sky.com