Bill Cosby sexual assault victim awarded $19.25m in civil trial

Bill Cosby has been found guilty of sexual assault in a civil trial.

A California jury on Monday awarded Donna Motsinger $19.25 million (£14.3 million) in damages, the Guardian reports.

Motsinger testified that she was working as a restaurant server in 1972 when she was drugged and raped by Cosby, after he gave her a glass of wine in his limousine.

Motsinger sued Cosby after California amended its laws to change the statutes of limitations on when accusers can file sexual assault cases. In remarks after the jury's verdict, she described the trial as a five-decade-long effort to get justice.

Cosby, once one of the most successful men in comedy and an entertainment icon, has largely disappeared from public view in the past decade amid widespread allegations of sexual misconduct. He has faced a series of civil trials.

The Cosby Show star spent three years in prison after being convicted of sexual assault in 2018. He was released in 2021 after a higher court reversed the decision, finding that prosecutors had violated Cosby's rights by promising not to charge him and then later pursuing a case against him.

A lawyer for Cosby stated that he plans to appeal this latest verdict.