“Not Cosby. Anybody BUT Bill Cosby!” The Breakfast Drive Presenter, John Robbie on 702 Talk Radio, almost willed a different outcome to a fairy tale gone rotten. Strangely I totally concurred with him. Somehow there was no way in which I could accept that Bill Cosby could have perpetrated such vile deeds. Why did he do so and why did I not believe that he was resort to such acts?

A number of such scandals have erupted recently, mostly decades after the event. The Bob Hewitt and Rolf Harris cases spring to mind. Then of course there is the on-going saga of the Catholic Church where literally hundreds of men had now come forward and exposed their friendly priest to be a paedophile.

One attribute binds all these cases together. They all have one factor in common viz the length of time before the crime was exposed. In many cases such as the one relating to Cosby even though the initial accusations were made a decade ago, they were not taken seriously.

There is another hidden factor at play in all these cases; less obvious but of greater significance – the status or the public image of the alleged perpetrator. In all these cases the prominence of the violator vis-à-vis the victim precluded or restrained the victim’s response. In all cases it was only after several decades had elapsed that it would allow solitary intrepid victim to lay a charge even though many others would confirm the veracity of the charge by admitting to similar experiences? One can only be fulsome in one’s praise for such courageous individuals who often will have to endure additional mental torment at the hands of the perpetrators and unwittingly have their reputations sullied mercilessly in the process.

For most it is a matter of pride or honour that justice is done, albeit long deferred. After all the years of suppressing their urge to enfeeble or punish the culprit, they are no longer willing to bear the anguish any longer. They will tolerate exposing the guilty party even if it means exposing themselves again – this time figuratively – to the culprit but this time in the full glare of the public’s eye.

Rolf Harris

To them at that tender age, a BC [Bill Cosby] was akin to a JC who was untouchable in every way. Worldly-wise, famous, endearing, rich, he had it in spadesful. Who would believe an immature little girl who in her cry for assistance made such allegations? Many such as Suellen in the Bob Hewitt case even did not find solace in her parents who disabused her of the notion that she could have been abused by such a well-known man.

Coming back to a previous question, why did both John Robbie and I both disbelieve such heinous allegations against Bill Cosby? Maybe we both endorsed Cosby’s folksy wisdom leavened with spoonsful of humour on the Cosby Show. Here was a man, Dr Cliff Huxtable dispensing sage advice to his precocious children and inevitably converted them to the straight and narrow course of life.

The Cosby Show

But it was more than a facile program. Apart from his book released in the 1980’s entitled Fatherhood, Bill Cosby would periodically berate the nihilistic and dissolute attitude of disaffected black youth in America. Cosby and many other millions beside – myself included – wished him good luck in his endeavours for it is upon the outcome of those actions that a black America – middle class, contented and prosperous – will arise.

In no way can such shameful actions ever be condoned but what one has to bear in mind that it is still possible that in both these cases that they are being falsely accused on trumped-up charges. The underlying problem in any court case against these men lies in the lack of proof. It is literally a case of “she claimed, he denied.”

What will most probably happen is that the unremitting tide of woes and flurry of accusations will not cease or even abate as other victims also become emboldened to tell the world of their own sordid tales of woe. In their dotage, both these men might not face an official judicial censure but it will be a pyrrhic victory. Their legacy built on a life-long basis would have been sullied to the point where future generations would despise them instead of admiring their achievements.

In Bill Cosby’s case, that process is already underway.

Janice Dickinson – the 15th woman to accuse Bill Cosby of sexual assault, and the third in the last month

To avoid future disappointment, maybe I should adopt a warier, less sanguine view of human nature.

In spite of a profound sense of shock and sorrow at this juncture, my view of life is that it is better to give people the benefit of the doubt until they fail irredeemably.

For if we do not do that, the world will be a less spontaneous, less invigorating place than it is now – for me at least. Most people – I contend – will probably defy the doom-and-gloom predictions of the pessimists and grow old without the stain of vituperation that Bob and Bill are now enduring.

But spare a thought for the victims such as the Suellen Sheehan’s of this world and the price that those pernicious actions have exacted upon them for decades.

Suellen Sheehan

Disclaimer: Certainly in the case of both Bob Hewitt and Bill Cosby, at this juncture these are still allegations and no more.