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Bill Cosby

A Florida woman who came forward last Thursday became the fourth in recent weeks to say Bill Cosby gave her pills that made her feel groggy then forced himself on her sexually. Therese Serignese, now 57 and a nurse in Boca Raton, said the television icon raped her in 1976 when she was 19-years-old following a show in Las Vegas. She said she went backstage and when the two were alone, Cosby gave her two pills and a glass of water, saying, “Take these”.

“My next memory is clearly feeling drugged, being without my clothes, standing up,” she said. “Bill Cosby was behind me, having sex with me.”

Cosby spokesman David Brokaw did not respond to a request for comment. Cosby’s lawyer, in a statement released yesterday, criticised previous “decades-old, discredited allegations,” stating that “the fact that they are being repeated does not make them true.”

Cosby made no mention of the allegations during a benefit performance in the Bahamas for a women’s service organisation.

He stuck to his routine, including stories about his childhood growing up in the projects of Philadelphia.

There were few empty seats in the house and a few people gave him an ovation when he finished his set.

Some in the audience said the allegations against Cosby remain unproven and they added that his performance was a benefit for what they felt was a good cause. — AP.