US television icon Bill Cosby was convicted of sexual assault Thursday in the first celebrity courtroom battle of the #MeToo era — a combative retrial that capped his fall from grace and offered vindication to scores of women who accused him of abuses. The frail, 80-year-old Cosby — once beloved as "America’s Dad" — risks spending the rest of his life behind bars when he is sentenced for drugging and molesting Andrea Constand at his Philadelphia mansion in January 2004. Cosby sat emotionless in the packed courtroom in Norristown, just outside Philadelphia, as the verdict was read out to stifled sobs and gasps in the gallery. Cosby’s attorney vowed to appeal. It was a devastating downfall for the once towering figure in late 20th century American popular culture, the first black actor to grace primetime US television, hitting the big time after growing up as the son of a maid. Constand, a 45-year-old Canadian former basketball player turned massage therapist, sat in court to witness ...
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