American Actor Bill Cosby
IN PHOTO: A new lawsuit has been filed against Bill Cosby. REUTERS/Eric Thayer

Bill Cosby isn’t the sweet, beloved sitcom dad that he is known as, according to a woman who was apparently raped by the 77-year-old actor. Barbara Bowman was just 17 when Cosby allegedly drugged and raped her.

Earlier this month, comedian Hannibal Buress called the septuagenarian a “rapist” during a stand-up act. He claimed Cosby talks down to the younger generation for their crude language but he is actually more terrible because he raped women.

Buress’ daring allegation has been widely reported in the media, and Bowman couldn’t even be happier that Cosby’s shady past has been revealed.

She was just 17 and an aspiring actress when Cosby took her under his wing, but instead of helping her career to take off, he apparently took advantage of her youth and her person. She revealed to the Daily Mail exclusively how the TV star sexually abused her.

“I was drugged and raped by that man,” she claimed. “He is a monster. He came at me like a monster. My hope is that others who have experienced sexual abuse will not be intimidated into silence by the famous, rich and powerful. If I can help one victim, then I’ve done my job.”

Bowman said that two years after receiving a private “audition” for Cosby in 1985, she saw how abusive the actor really was.

The first time she met him in a conference room, he told her to go in the bathroom and wet her hair, which she did. She was then told to sit in a chair and shut her eyes while doing an improvisation exercise with him. He stood behind her and stroked her neck and upper chest. Although Cosby didn’t touch her after that, Bowman said that’s when it all started. Cosby then met with her regularly to give her acting lessons. Eventually, he had her join him as he flew around the country when he performed.

“He started working on my head right away. He knew I had no father figure in my life. He knew that. Yes, I was an independent girl, but he knew I was vulnerable and alone inside. He coerced and manipulated me into trusting him. He insisted I give into him 100 percent.”

“By the time I was drugged and raped by him in New York, Ihe’d already broken me down, brainwashed me and made me feel like there was something wrong with me if I resisted his sexual advances,” Bowman continued, saying that Cosby also successfully gained her mother’s trust.

She went on to detail Cosby’s sexual abuse of her, including a time when he had her masturbate him and the multiple instances when she woke up from a drugged haze undressed while Cosby was in his robe.

“I know for sure he forced himself multiple times upon me and since he needed to create an environment in which I could not fight him, I can’t in all honesty say that I recall penetration because at that time I was in a vacant state of mind, as I was often drugged and brainwashed.”

It all ended when she was 19 and had the mistake of calling a hotel concierge, making her presence in Cosby’s penthouse suite known. He threw her down on his bed and pinned her by the neck. He tried to unbuckle his belt, but couldn’t get it off while she screamed for help and wrestled to get away from him. He gave up when he thought she wouldn’t stop. That’s when he threw her out and told her her career in showbiz was finished.

“I’m finally revealing all of my full story in hopes that others will learn to read the tell-tale signs of abuse and not wait as long as I did. No one believed me for years. They said Bill would never do that. That it was preposterous. But I’m putting my name out there and standing behind these words, just like Buress. No more code of silence,” she said, adding her gratitude to the 31-year-old comic for speaking out on behalf of her and Cosby’s other alleged victims.

“I thank Hannibal Buress for speaking out over and over again, despite the threats from the industry that it could ruin his career. He is standing up for me and the other women who are too afraid to speak out.”

Bowman, 47, wasn’t the one alleged victim of the veteran comic. In 2004, Andrea Constand filed a lawsuit against Cosby for apparently drugging and sexually assaulting her. The incidents she cited were similar to Bowman’s experience with the actor. Bowman was one of the 13 victims who were called to take the witness stand in Constand’s civil suit, but Constand settled her case out of court for an undisclosed sum.