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UPDATE - 26 September, 09:30:
Bill Cosby's mugshot has been released.
The photograph was provided by the Montgomery County Correctional Facility shortly after the 81-year-old was sentenced to a minimum of three years in state prison.
Cosby removed his watch, tie and jacket in the courtroom before being escorted out by two police officers in handcuffs.
SEE THE MUGSHOT HERE:
UPDATE - 26 September, 07:00:
Bill Cosby will spend the first few days of his prison sentence at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility outside Philadelphia.
Cosby left the suburban Philadelphia courthouse in a dark SUV after a judge sentenced the 81-year-old to three to 10 years in state prison for sexual assault.
A spokesperson for the Montgomery County district attorney's office says Cosby will be held at the county jail for at least the next few days. From there, he'll be taken to SCI Phoenix, a new state prison outside Philadelphia, where staff will assess his physical, medical and security needs.
UPDATE - 25 September, 20:00:
His Hollywood career and good-guy image in ruins, an 81-year-old Bill Cosby was sentenced on Tuesday to three to 10 years behind bars for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman, becoming the first celebrity of the #MeToo era to be sent to prison.
The punishment all but completed the dizzying, late-in-life fall for the comedian, former TV star and breaker of racial barriers.
"It is time for justice. Mr. Cosby, this has all circled back to you. The time has come," Montgomery County Judge Steven O'Neill said. He quoted from victim Andrea Constand's own statement to the court, in which she said Cosby took her "beautiful, young spirit and crushed it."
In imposing the sentence the judge added: "I'm not permitted to treat him any differently based on who he is or who he was."
Although the crime carries a maximum of 10 years in prison, Pennsylvania sentencing guidelines indicate 22 to 36 months in prison, plus or minus 12 months because of aggravating or mitigating circumstances.
Norristown - A judge declared Bill Cosby a "sexually violent predator" on Tuesday as a first step toward sentencing the 81-year-old comedian for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman over a decade ago.
The classification means that Cosby must undergo monthly counseling for the rest of his life and report quarterly to authorities. His name will appear on a sex-offender registry sent to neighbors, schools and victims.
Montgomery County Judge Steven O'Neill made the decision as he prepared to sentence Cosby for violating Temple University women's basketball administrator Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia estate in 2004.
The comic once known as America's Dad for his role as wise and understanding Dr. Cliff Huxtable on The Cosby Show in the 1980s faced anywhere from probation to 10 years in prison after being convicted in April in the first celebrity trial of the #MeToo era.
Prosecutors asked for five to 10 years behind bars. The defense requested house arrest, saying Cosby is too old and helpless to do time in prison. He is legally blind.
Cosby's lawyers had fought the "sexually violent predator" designation, arguing that Pennsylvania's sex-offender law is unconstitutional and that he is no threat to the public at his age. But O'Neill said prosecutors had met their burden of proof by "clear and convincing" evidence.
When the ruling came down, a woman in courtroom shot her fist into the air and whispered, "Yessss!"
Meanwhile, Constand said in a statement submitted to the court and released on Tuesday that she has had to cope with years of anxiety and self-doubt that have left her "stuck in a holding pattern."
Constand, 45, said her training as a professional basketball player had led her to think she could handle anything, but "life as I knew it" ended on the night that Cosby knocked her out with pills and violated her.
Constand said she now lives alone with her two dogs and has trouble trusting people.
"When the sexual assault happened, I was a young woman brimming with confidence and looking forward to a future bright with possibilities," she wrote in her five-page statement.
"Now, almost 15 years later, I'm a middle-aged woman who's been stuck in a holding pattern for most of her adult life, unable to heal fully or to move forward."
She also wrote: "We may never know the full extent of his double life as a sexual predator but his decades-long reign of terror as a serial rapist is over."
In the years since Constand first went to authorities in 2005, more than 60 women have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct, though none of those claims have led to criminal charges.
The judge ruled on Cosby's sex-offender status after a defense psychologist, Timothy Foley, testified that the chances of the comedian committing another sex offense are "extraordinarily low" because he is old, legally blind and needs help getting around.
On Monday, a psychologist for the state testified that Cosby appears to have a mental disorder that gives him an uncontrollable urge to assault women.
Cosby was smiling and joking with his spokesman and sheriff's deputies as he settled into the courtroom on Tuesday. On Day 1 of the sentencing, the comic laughed at times as the psychologist on the stand for the state portrayed him as a sexual predator with signs of a mental disorder.
Cameras were not allowed in the courtroom; they are generally banned in Pennsylvania.
Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt said the former TV star planned to remain silent when given the opportunity to address the court. Cosby did not testify at either of his two trials.
The proceedings took place as another extraordinary #MeToo drama continued to unfold on Capitol Hill, where Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh faces allegations of sexual misconduct from more than three decades ago.
The AP does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they come forward publicly, which Constand and other accusers have done.
(Photo: AP)
