Following comedian Hannibal Buress’ scathing attack on Bill Cosby, who he accused of being a serial rapist among other things, more and more of his alleged victims are creeping out of the woodwork, recalling memories of The Cosby Show star that they would probably rather forget.
One such victim, actress Barbara Bowman, was a mere teenager when she met Cosby, as she described in a recent interview with the Daily Mail , where she outlines how she was manipulated by Bill Cosby in a variety of ways.
According to Bowman, Cosby portrayed himself as a supportive father figure to her, while in reality he was manipulating and priming her for sex with him time and time again.
“I was drugged and raped by that man. 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 told the publication.
Barbara Bowman was full of hope and high aspirations when she joined the J.F. Images agency in Denver, and started studying modeling and acting by the time she was just 10-years-old. In 1985, she claims she had a “dream” private audition with Bill Cosby, but that dream turned into a nightmare just two years later, when she says she was pinned down by Cosby on a hotel bed and raped.
At the age of 47, Bowman has decided to end her code of silence and is speaking out, in detail, about the abuse she claims she suffered at the hands of the comic legend.
“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. 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.”
According to Bowman, there are numerous other victims who suffered the same treatment from Cosby , who were allegedly given “hush money” to prevent them from going public with their accusations.
While Bill Cosby’s PR machine has done well so far to whitewash allegations such as the ones made by Barbara Bowman, the pressure is now on again for them to prove that America’s favorite TV sitcom comedian is innocent of the claims against him.