The number of women who have come forward and accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault and drugging has now reached 50. On Thursday, with attorney Gloria Allred by their side, two women held a press conference and shared stories similar to those of previous women.
Charlotte Fox, an aspiring actress at the time of the alleged assault, said she met Cosby in 1974 while working as an extra on the movie Uptown Saturday Night. Fox alleged that Cosby invited her to the Playboy Mansion, where, she said, he then drugged and assaulted her.
"We ate and drank. I became ill," Fox said. "The next thing I remember was that I was sort of awake, in a bed, with no clothes on, and there was Mr. Cosby, in a robe, crawling from the bottom of the bed. I was incapacitated and couldn't say no. He engaged in sexual activity with me. It was not consensual. I was afraid to call out."
Another woman, identified only as "Elizabeth," was a 20-year-old flight attendant in 1976 when, she said, she met Cosby. She stated that she had dinner with Cosby and was invited to his hotel room, where she said she was forced to perform a sexual act.
Although many people have questioned why it has taken Cosby's accusers so long to come forward, Allred made it clear why they were speaking out now.
"They are speaking out now because they want the world to know what they allege they were forced to suffer because they had the misfortune to meet a man that they admired and thought that they could trust, Bill Cosby," Allred said at the news conference. "It is not too late for them to become empowered women."
Cosby is scheduled to appear in court Oct. 9 in connection with a lawsuit filed by a woman who accuses him of sexually assaulting her at the Playboy Mansion when she was only 15 years old.