Cosby paid women off, claims ex-aide

Pressure on comedian as more women claim they were assaulted

New York

A former NBC employee who previously worked closely with Bill Cosby has revealed he helped deliver thousands of dollars to eight women between 1989 and 1990 on behalf of the comedian.

The claims will mount pressure on Cosby as more women come forward with sexual assault accusations.

Frank Scotti told New York Daily News that he served as Cosby’s “fixer” and helped the comedian to “fool the world”. The ex-aide told how he would keep watch outside the door as Cosby invited models — some as young as 16 — into his dressing room. The models were provided by a Manhattan agency’s owner.

Scotti claims Cosby would put women he liked up in apartments and give them up to $2,000 per month. He said: “He had everybody fooled. Nobody suspected. I felt sorry for the women.”

Scotti provided copies of money orders to four women and said Cosby asked him to put his own name on them. “He was covering himself by having my name on it,” he told the newspaper. “It was a cover-up. I realised it later.”

One woman, Shawn Thompson, reportedly received over $100,000 after their alleged affair started in 1974. Thompson’s daughter, Autumn Jackson, has claimed Cosby is her father, which Cosby has denied.

One woman whose name is on the receipts told the Daily News the payments funded her son’s private schooling.

Scotti is confident that Cosby was sexually involved with the women receiving payments, and has come forward now because he “felt sorry for the women”.

“Why else would he be sending money?” he asked.

Cosby’s lawyers Martin Singer denied Scotti’s claims. “What evidence does he have of Mr Cosby’s involvement?” Singer said.

“How would Scotti know if a woman was a model or a secretary? It appears that his story is pure speculation so that he can get his 15 minutes of fame.”

Some of the women are going public again after initially coming forward around 2005, when Andrea Constand filed a lawsuit alleging she was sexually assaulted by him.

Tamara Green, a lawyer, also said Cosby tried to sexually assault her in her Los Angeles apartment around 1970, when she was a model and an aspiring actress. She said Cosby gave her two pills that made her almost lose consciousness, took her to her apartment, undressed her, and took his clothes off as she fought off advances.

Another woman, Joan Tarshis, said Cosby gave her drug-laced drinks twice in 1969, forcing her to perform a sex act the first time and raping her the second time. She said she told no one, and only decided to go public when she read a column in The Washington Post on November 13 by Barbara Bowman, who alleges she was drugged and raped by Cosby when she was 17.

Another, Therese Serignese, said she was drugged and raped by Cosby in 1976.