Cosby's fate rests with jury in Pennsylvania sex assault case

It was read to them by the judge.

In the prosecution's closing argument, Mr Steele said Cosby's lurid statements from 2005 helped corroborate Ms Constand's allegations.

Following six days of testimony, the jurors in the Bill Cosby sexual assault trial began formal deliberations Monday in Norristown, PA, to determine the comedian's fate.

Cosby maintained only that he gave Constand the antihistamine Benadryl to relieve stress, and that they had consensual sexual relations, accusing her of lying. Then pointing to Camille Cosby said: "And she deserved better".

But in closing statements, the prosecution portrayed the actor as a sexual predator who deliberately drugged 44-year-old Canadian Andrea Constand so she would be unable to resist his assault in January 2004.

"Drugging somebody and putting them in a position where you can do what you want with them is not romantic".

Prosecutor Kevin Steele and defense attorney Brian McMonagle each sent the jurors off to deliberations with rhetorical dilemmas to resolve.

Philadelphia defense lawyer Alan Tauber says that's less likely in Cosby's case because his fame makes him an unlikely flight risk.

Legal experts said testifying would have been a risky move that could have opened the TV star to withering cross-examination about some of the 60 or so other women who have accused him of drugging or molesting them.

Next, instructions are expected to be given to the jury, which will decide on the three counts of aggravated indecent assault.

The black comedian, once known as America's Dad for his portrayal of kindly Dr Cliff Huxtable on The Cosby Show, suggested recently that race could have played a role in the case against him.

"I'm going to go home and tell my wife 'I spent my day trying to right a awful wrong, '" he said to the jury. Her mother, Gianna Constand, left midway during McMonagle's closing arguments in which he repeatedly branded her daughter as a liar. Cosby's lawyers hammered home the point that she doesn't know just when it happened, and they questioned why she had regular phone contact with Cosby later that spring, including more than 50 calls to him.

Constand told the jury the calls mostly involved the women's basketball team at Temple University, where she worked and he was a powerful trustee. "This is talking to a lover", McMonagle said of one call that lasted 49 minutes. "Why are we running from the truth of this case - this relationship? Why?"

Cosby's wife of 53 years, Camille - in the courtroom for the first time in the 6-day trial - was stoic during the defense argument.

Prosecutors will give their closing argument Monday afternoon.

Constand said she was "mistaken" when she made those statements to police. "You don't put her in a bedroom for this...you put her on a sofa, you do what you do to her, and then you leave her", he said, pleading with the jury.

Actor and comedian Bill Cosby (L) leaves with his spokesman Andrew Wyatt after a break in the deliberations in his sexual assault trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pennsylvania, US June 12, 2017. To many of those survivors, convicting Cosby over one incident is a kind of collective justice. His deposition was sealed for years until a judge released parts in 2015 at the request of The Associated Press, prompting a new set of prosecutors to take a fresh look at the case.

In his excited and animated closing, McMonagle made emotional appeals to the jury, weaving anecdotes about parenting and patriotism as he argued Cosby's prosecution was "nonsense" driven by lawyers and media attention.

The defense says when the case began it was about money, but now it's a about a man's liberty.

Prosecutors presented nearly no forensic evidence, and legal experts have said the trial fits the "he said-she said" arguments so common to sexual offense cases.

"This is where all the fancy lawyering can't get you around your own words", he said.

Cosby's testimony in her civil case shows just how hard a witness he would be to control.

Constand, under the influence of the drugs and who briefly lost consciousness, could not and did not give consent, he said.